Man and Machine
by Under the Setting Sun
Summary: Deeks has transferred to a new department after the loss of his partner, and being wounded in the line of duty. The first case he works with his new partner takes a strange turn when the victims are all robots. Even stranger, the victims are all women. Their main suspect is a raving lunatic that will stop at nothing to complete his objective; even killing Deeks and his partner.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer- The idea for this story popped into me head when I reading the story Companion by hermionesmydawg, human and machine working together, but that's where the similarities end. This story is based more on the Japanese animate movie called Armitage the Third. This story delves deeper into the world of cyborg and human interaction; I don't want to go into much more details than that or it will spoil the plot of the story. I will use the Armitage story, but switch out the main characters in that movie with characters from N.C.I.S. Los Angeles. I know that I usually come up with my own stories, but I like this story and characters a lot. Please don't hate on me for not coming up with an original story, let me tell this story with different characters._

Prologue

The year is 2179, humans have harnessed the power of the A.I. and made servants out of robots. The first generation robots were just that, robots. The people complained about how the robots were intimidating. The parent company went back and create the second generation robot, or _Seconds_ as some of society have come to know them. The _Seconds_ were robots, but they have been given a layer of synthetic skin; making them look more human. But just like any other being, artificial intelligence is capable of evil things too. Alongside controlling artificial intelligence mankind has also master spaceflight. Humanity has terraformed many plants: many have struggle to form a habitable planet, others have failed; except one. Only one planet has successfully accepted the terraforming process on the first try, and that is Mars. The first settlers went to Mars about forty years ago, and have thrived.

My name is Martin Deeks. I'm a former Los Angeles Police Department undercover detective transferring to the Martian Police Department.

 _M.P.D.; Martian Police Department. That must have gotten them a lot of flak when they first started shooting that out._ I think.

I'm in the middle of a six month hump from Earth to Mars. I'm not exactly sure how that tiny little woman talked me into transferring. No, I'm pretty sure I know how she talked me into.

 _M.A.M._

Three months ago-

I enter the station house after the shooting incident three months back. I was out with my partner Jess one night celebrating after we closed a case, when we were ambushed. A cyborg came up behind us and opened fire. I took a round in the leg, and Jessica took two to her torso.

"No! Jessica!" I screamed.

I hobbled over to her, and held her lifeless body in my arms. I didn't have my sidearm with me, so I just waited for the robot to shoot me. I closed my eyes as the machine was ready to kill me; I hear a gunshot, but I don't feel the pain of being shot, like the sensation that is radiating through my leg. I hear the ambulances that were coming for us, but I blacked out before we got to the hospital.

I walk to my desk without making eye contact with anybody. I see the looks on their faces; some are sympathetic, some are indifferent, while others show their normal disdain for me. I sit down at my desk, and start filling out paper work. Bates comes to my desk ten minutes after I sit down.

"The doc's word not good enough for you?" I ask, not in the mood to be coddled.

"Who pissed in your coffee this morning?" Bates asked.

"If you have something that will help me get off this desk, speak up. Otherwise I have no time for pointless chatter." I say, standing up and getting in Bates face.

"Watch your mouth detective." Bates said sternly.

"Or else what, you going to fire me? You'd be doing everybody a favor." I say.

 _Ahem._

Both Bates and I turn from each other and look at the person who cleared their throat. Bates drops his face into his palm, while I roll my eyes. The person who cleared her throat was an emissary from Mars coming to give her sales pitch again.

"Henrietta Lange to what do we owe the pleasure?" Bates asked, trying to be as cordial as he could manage.

I just stared at Bates in disgust for his butt kissing.

"It's "Hetty", and I have come to talk to your detective." Hetty said.

 _She has come to make me another offer about joining her department._ I think.

"Play nice." Bates said.

I noticed that Bates had a mustache.

"That's nice mustache lieutenant. You doing undercover work in gay porn again?" I ask.

Bates threw me a death stare, but walked away. I sit back down, and massage my leg.

"How's the leg?" Hetty asked.

"It's getting better. How did you hear about that?" I ask.

"I hear everything." Hetty said.

"If you hear everything, then you've already heard what I'm about the say, again." I say.

"Are you sure you want to turn me down again? You and I both know with that injury, L.A.P.D. is going to bench you for the rest of your career, or fire you. If they don't fire, you have about ten years left to finish you career. Do you want to finish your career by sitting on your ass and pushing papers?" Hetty asked

"Alright!" I exclaim. "I'll transfer."

Hetty opens a folder on my desk that I missed, and flips to the last page. I sign on the dotted line, and then put my pen down. Fifteen years as a cop, and now I'm transferring off world to finish out my career.

"When do I leave?" I ask, afraid to acknowledge my actions.

"Two weeks." Hetty says. "I'll go talk to Bates about the transfer."

"Anything else that I need, or need to know?" I ask.

Hetty handed me envelope, and then walked away. I opened it and saw the contents of the envelope was a one way-ticket to Mars. I look around my desk surveying it once seeing if there was anything I needed, and then got up and left. I don't even care for anything left on, or in the desk. I exit the station, hailing a cab to take me back to my apartment. I pull out my suit cases and leave them out. I go and grab a beer and pull out the picture of Jess and me as I sit down at my table. I take a sip of my beer when I hear a knock at the door.

 _It's probably Hetty._ I think.

I open the door to see that it was Hetty standing outside my apartment.

"Come in Hetty. Can I offer you anything? Milk, water?" I ask.

"No thank you. I have to leave shortly. I just wanted to know how you were coping." Hetty said.

"Coping?" I ask.

Hetty just stared at me. I know what she was asking, but I didn't want to answer it.

"What do you think?" I ask.

"It hurt you badly, but you'd rather not talk about it. You'd rather compartmentalize it, bury it, and get lost in your work." Hetty said.

"Looks like there isn't anything else to talk about. Is there anything else I need to know?" I ask.

"You will have to work with another partner when to get to Mars." Hetty said.

"Really? Why?" I ask.

"Consider it the price of admission." Hetty said.

"Alright." I say, holding my hands up in surrender.

"I'll see you in six months." Hetty said.

"See you then." I say, with a wave of dismissal.

Hetty walks out the door, and I finish beer. After I finish my beer, I head out. I have one stop that I have to make. I go and see the graves of Jessica Traynor, and my mother. I tell them both that my days at the L.A.P.D. are over, and that I'm leaving Earth; heading to Mars. I tell my mom that I'm sorry that I couldn't save her from dad, and how much I miss her home made lasagna. I tell Jess that I missed hanging out with her after hours and throwing back a few beers. I kiss both of their headstones, and head home. I stop by the bank and withdraw all my money. Most of which I will need to break the lease on my apartment. The rest will be used to help me get through the next two weeks.

I spend my last few days surfing, and then on the last day I change out of my gear and give it to the surf shop. I tell them I will no longer need it, and then I head home. I take a shower, do a quick load of laundry, and then finish packing my luggage. The next morning, I catch a cab at four in the morning to be at the launch station on time. When I check in, I'm informed that Hetty had bought a first class ticket for me. So I follow the attendant and take my seat. The attendant asked if I wanted something to drink.

"I'll take a water." I say.

When the attendant comes back with my drink, she informs me of the activities that the ship has to keep my attention for the six month flight. I spend the better part of the six month trip sleeping.

 _M.A.M._

Present day-

I wake occasional to use the restroom, and get a drink or a bite to eat. One such instance I see a beautiful woman who catches my eye, but I ignore the sensation in my gut.

 _She looks like some kind of country sing._ I think.

I crawl back into my pod, and finish the last leg of the trip unconscious. The loss of Jess still fresh, even if it happened eight months ago. On the day that we going to be landing at St. Lowell, the attendant woke and informed me that we would be landing in an hour. The way the spaceships work for passengers boarding, and disembarking is quite different. There is a train that takes us to and from the ship. When the train was heading into the station there was a problem. Then entire cabin is thrown forward as the brakes engage. The force of the motion is so strong that I'm on the floor holding onto the frame of the chairs. After a time the train brakes disengage, and then makes the rest of the trip to the station.

After I get off the train I head to baggage claim to get my things. I set my carry-on bag down, and take a deep breath. Six months of recycled air does a number on you. Just as I'm about to reach for my luggage, some man jogging with a rolling suitcase bumps into me.

"Hey, watch out." I warn the man.

I see four more men join him, two on each side of him. I watched the group for a couple seconds, and then turn away. Just as I turn my back I hear a woman yell out a command; to which I comply with.

"Freeze! Get your hands up!"

I take a look over my shoulder when I don't feel her hands try to apply handcuffs, and I see that she is talking to the five men that just brush past me.

"I said get your hands up, now!" The woman continued.

I see bystanders taking interest in what's going on, usually happens when there is an arrest going on.

"What's up?" I ask the woman.

"Detective, you better stay back." The woman says.

 _How the in the world did she know I was a detective?_ I think.

I take the woman in and she is almost a spitting imagine of Jess, except she has white skin instead of brown skin.

I barely register the guy who bumped into me say something.

"Handle it."

And his four bodyguards turn and start heading towards us, with guns drawn.

 _CRAP!_ I think.

"Get back!" The woman commands, as she smacks me in the face.

The woman fires two rounds into the first man, and I'm in shock. No blood came squirting out of the entrance wounds.

 _More darn robot killers!_ I think

 _A/N: The characters of N.C.I.S. Los Angeles belong to C.B.S., and the story that I'm basing the story off of and its characters belongs to Pioneer Entertainment. I know this is a little out of the norm for me, using a story that has all been written, but it's one of my favorite anime movies. Again, please don't hate me for this!_

 _A/N:The reason for the update is because I'm not one for vulgarity, yes it was originally rated M. That being said the dynamic of the story will not change; I just won't have Deeks and his partner swearing. So yes I changed the rating and small parts of the prologue, but the story itself remains intact.  
_


	2. Part 1

_A/N: Thanks for the love and allowing me to tell this story. Now I will make it worth your while. It should be noted that this story revolves mainly around three people that I'm bring in from N.C.I.S.; Hetty, Kensi and Deeks. I will mention other characters, but only in passing throughout the story. Eric has a small part too._

The fire fight get so intense that I have to duck behind a pillar; there are two cops that were hiding behind it. I look at the first one and ask.

"Tell me you packing a gun, Sheriff."

The Sheriff grunts at me, but I come to the realization that he doesn't have a gun. I turn to his deputy.

"How about you?" I ask.

"Oh, uh-uh." He says, shaking his head no.

"Crap. A bunch of cowboys up the butt and not one of them's got a darn gun." I mutter to myself.

I turn and peek from behind the pillar in time to see the perpetrator, and one of his men run away. The female cop yells out for them to stop, but one of the cyborgs that she shot at the beginning of the fight grabs her by the leg, and dangles her upside down; just staring at her. I realize that it might end badly for her, so I leave cover and run for the pair. I hear the cop screaming the entire time as I'm running over to save her, sort of. I punch the robot in the jaw with a right cross, laying him out. What I didn't notice was the cop go flying in the air. I stand my ground waiting for the robot to get back up, when I feel her fall across my shoulders, with her left leg next to my right ear, I'm momentarily winded from having her land on me with her full weight.

"Let me down! Let me down!" She exclaims.

I start to comply, but she continues talking.

"Look that jackal's getting away!" She says.

"What the." I say.

I feel the woman flip off my back, but something catches my attention. I see something on the floor that I missed when the fire fight first started. I see a trail of red in the direction of the fleeing bad guys. I look again and realize that the red trail is actually a liquid.

 _That looks like blood._ I think.

I look down the open platform and realize that it's coming from the suitcase.

"No, wait!" I exclaim.

"Stay out of this, Detective." The woman says.

I hear her fire two rounds and it takes the bodyguard down. I hear her fire a third round, but it went wide and missed the suspect by a long shot. I see the woman line up the next shot.

"This is the Martian Police Department, Detective Deeks." She says "Did you have a nice trip?"

The crowd was silent so that when she took the shot that it echo perfectly throughout the station. In slow motion I see the guy fall to the ground as the suit case falls open. All around me, people watch in horror as the scene plays out in front of them. What would have been thirty seconds to play out, feels like a minute and a half. Some woman screams out when she sees the dead body, and then somebody recognizes the dead with entry wounds in both her head and chest. I hear a woman crying.

"It's McCanon!" A man shout.

"He killed her!" Another man shouted.

I watch as the crowd starts to run after him, like they were about to deal out a dose of mob justice for killing the woman. I start to follow the crowd, but I stop when I recognize the name. I look down and see a banner on the floor with a picture of the dead woman's face on it.

"The country singer?" I ask no one in particular.

The suspect starts to get back to his feet, slowly regaining his composure. He starts to freak out when he sees the blood on his hand. I now get a good look at the man; white male, about five feet eleven inches tall, probably about one hundred and forty pounds, eyes that are a shade of blue, and wild blond hair. I see him stand straight up looking at the crowd, and the cop who shot him. I see him stand back as he pulls out compact automatic rifle, and starts firing and wildly into the crowd; I hear him laughing manically, too. After he stops the crowd he continues firing, but he blows out the bay windows to his left. The crowd ducks for cover, but the cop keeps running. I see her twirling something on her index finger of her left hand, and then she send is flying at the suspect, who just happens to jumping out the window. I see what the object was that she threw at the guy.

 _It was a pair of hand cuffs._

I walk over to the window and look down. On one of the lower walkways was a car that was waiting for him, probably so he could make a quick getaway.

"Crap!" I say.

The man looks nonchalantly at the pair of hand cuffs on his wrist. Next thing I hear is more glass breaking. Both the suspect and I turn to see that female cop jumping off the platform on to his car.

"Huh?" I say, when I register the glass breaking; I look back to see that the cop was actually jumping off the platform after the suspect. I hear the car engine revving up to peel out just as the cop lands on the trunk of the car.

"Hey, wait? What the heck are you doing? You darn lunatic!" I shout after the woman.

I watch as the car drives off.

"This is insane." I say.

First day on the planet and I witness a homicide, per se. I didn't actually see the homicide take place, but I saw the killer try to get away with his victim.

 _Why did he want take the body? Why didn't he just leave it at the scene of the crime?_ I think.

The fact that he tried to leave with the leave with the body makes want to go check to see what's so important about it. I can hear people talking, groaning in pain from being shot or having glass fall on them, coughing in pain or in fear as I make my way over to the body. I hear a man expressing concern when he finds his loved one. Glad that she wasn't killed in the altercation on the platform. I squat down on my haunches and give a cursory glance of the body. I hear a little girl crying over the death of the country singer.

"Her name was Kelly McCanon." A woman said.

I turn and to my surprise it was the female cop that jumped off the platform not even ten minutes ago.

 _Who the heck is this woman? She had to of jumped at least thirty feet down to the waiting car._ I think.

"She was a famous country singer. In fact, she was the only country singer in the universe. I guess they're extinct now." She says.

"And the suspect?" I ask, as I bend over to do a preliminary check of the body.

"I dunno." She says.

"Tell me, is that crazy getup you're wearing a standard issue Martian police uniform?" I ask.

The woman is wearing red boots that come up to the bottom of her calves, and thigh high black socks with buckles with garter straps attaching to her underwear. She's wear red hot pants, with a heart on the belt buckle. She's wear a red brassiere under a red leather jacket that comes down to her rib cage, and black gloves. She wears a choker that buckles in the front, and wears chain-link earrings with three links in each. Her gun is in a shoulder holster under her left arm. I hear her giggle before responding.

"Course not."

 _And Hetty has no problems with her officer roaming around like that? Okay._ I think.

"So, what's your name?" I ask.

"The name's Kensi." She says, as she drapes herself over my shoulders. I feel her rub my shoulders, as she continues.

"Ooh, what a sexy back. I just love broad shoulders." Kensi says.

"Hey!" I say, sitting up right.

I hear Kensi grunting when she falls on her butt.

"What was that for, I was just being nice!" She exclaims.

"Listen. What's going on here? Is this somebody's idea of a sick joke? Annie Oakley here isn't even human." I says sternly to Kensi, getting in her face.

I hear Kensi gasps when she realizes that McCanon wasn't a human. She stands up, looking over me, and into the chest cavity of the dead woman and sees the light flickering on and off in its chest.

"It's a darn robot." I say.

I stand up right as I wait for a response from Kensi. When she doesn't answer I ask.

"What's wrong? What's going on?"

I see Kensi walk away to pick up her sunglasses.

"Spaceport police. This is their jurisdiction." Kensi says, and then walks away.

Some bright light gets my attention, and I turn to see that the vultures known as the "press" have already shown up and are taking pictures of the deceased. I turn back to watch Kensi some more. I grab my carry-on luggage bag, and then run after Kensi. We leave the space station, get in her car, and then head to the police station. When we enter the police station I hear the news reporter on the television say.

" _In response to the Kelly McCanon incident, The Martian Police Department has created T.C.S., Technological Criminal SWAT to investigate. Lieutenant Lange of the M.P.D. decline further details._ "

In the squad room I see the plasma screen light up and a picture of the deceased was on the screen. Kensi and I were on the stage off to the right while Hetty took the podium. I see other veterans that have been on the force for several years. In the back I see Detectives Sam Hanna and G. Callen who have been on the force for the past twenty years, partners for the last five of them. I see Nell Jones who start here about two months ago. She has taking a shining to a guy name Eric Beale who also started not too long ago. The man down in front by the projector is Eddie, from the look of his aged body, and weathered, and hard-lined face he must have been a veteran off the force for the past twenty-five to thirty years.

"The million dollar question is, just what do we have here, a woman or a robot?" Hetty asks.

Some random man, whose name I never got from Kensi, stands up and continues with the briefing.

"Ma'am, the results from my preliminary findings are well, uh, interesting." The man said.

 _Define interesting._ I think.

"I learn that the, uh, victim- shall we call her- is not a human nor a cyborg. After examining the body I concluded that she was entirely a robot. Her body tissue was of man-made organic origin. And she functioned through artificial intelligence. While no one is capable of creating a human brain." The man said.

"Yet." Hetty said.

Out the corner of my eye I see Kensi is blowing bubbles in her gum.

"Her computer brain was very sophisticated." The man said.

The entire time he is giving his findings he is sliding through different photos. First was of the skin on the out layer of her body. Next was of the musculoskeletal system, and the skeletal system. Final picture was of the woman's brain, or what qualifies as a brain for a robot.

"And, as I mentioned, her physical construction was created organically, but it was done with a technology much more advanced than the Second series models. I believe that the victim was a prototype built outside of regulations. It could also, uh, mean that there are other illegal models like her running around under our noses." The man said.

"Yes, thank you. And now Detective Deeks will give his report about the scene." Hetty said, motioning for me to approach the podium.

"Hi, I'm Martin Deeks from the Los Angeles Police Department." I say from the podium.

There was a yawn that tore through the silent squad room. It was coming from Eddie. I sigh to myself, and then shoot a glance over a Kensi, and she gives me a thumbs up.

"Uh, the suspects appeared. I mean, they seemed like they wanted to transport the body without anyone noticing. Um, probably to finish their work somewhere else in private. Officer Kensi there had been trailing the suspects and the all heck broke loose." I say.

"Miss. Blye, can you fill us in?" Hetty asked.

"Well, I trailed the suspects and saw they were equipped. I didn't think they were carrying a dead robot." Kensi said.

"So, what does that mean? That it was McCanon's impostor riding the shuttle?" Eddie asked.

"Shut up, Eddie!" Hetty exclaimed.

"Hmm." Eddie grunted.

"What did her manager have to say?" Hetty asked.

"Well, ma'am, according to him, he didn't see any difference between the woman he sat with and the real country-western singer. And nobody saw her come out of the arriving terminal. The only suspicious passenger he saw was Detective Deeks." Eric said.

 _Screw him!_ I think.

"Well, it seems that the trick for us is to find out where the real McCanon is." Hetty said.

"You know, maybe she was feeling her wild oats. Might have found herself some kind of wild lover." Eddie said, and then kissed his hat.

I roll my eyes at Eddie.

"Eddie, will you zip it!" Hetty exclaimed. "Just how was she acting inside the shuttle?"

"She acted fine. She was holding a normal conversation. Nothing seemed unusual about it to me. Heck, I wouldn't have been unable to tell her apart from a human." I say.

"Uh-huh. Uh." Eddie says, clearing his throat as he stands up. "Are you telling us that this robot was really McCanon? You think this prima donna was a machine from the beginning?" Eddie asked.

Something about Eddie's question remember about Kensi' reaction when I stated that the victim was a robot, so I started to back up like I was expecting Kensi to help me, but I was just buying time.

"No. I'm just saying that you can't distinguish it from a human being. Oh, hey, yeah, Kensi. When you realized that the corpse was a robot, you seemed shock, even upset. Did you think something was wrong?" I ask, but I don't give her leeway to think her answer over. "Well, did ya?"

"No, sir." Kensi said, and then looked away from me.

Something about how she looked away made me suspicious, but I let it go. Kensi blows one last bubble, and then Hetty concludes the briefing, She pulls me into her office, and gives me a side arm. Saying something about her people don't go unarmed. What caught my attention was the fact that Hetty has got a gun that was sort of a relic, a Beretta 92FS; I'm not exactly sure how she knew I would want this particular model, and I don't care. I head to the armory and grab a couple boxes of ammo, load the gun and magazines, and then I meet Kensi at the car. The drive to my new place was made in silence. It wasn't until we were walking to the elevator that Kensi started talking again.

"I hope you like your new place. It's probably not as nice as you're used to, but there's a housing shortage here. And besides, the rent is reasonably on this end of town." Kensi said.

"Gee, a regular Park Avenue." I said.

Kensi stops, and turns to glare at me. When I get out of the alley way we were walking in Kensi looked up, and I follow her gaze. I'm taken back by the complex being about twelve floors high, but what gets me is where there should have been sky, there's more artificial constructions in the sky above us.

"Whoa!" I say, out loud.

I hear the elevator say as we were getting off at my stop.

 _Twelfth floor_.

"I'm sure it's better when you get inside." Kensi said.

Kensi unlocks the door, and we walk in. I wrinkle my nose at the smell prevailing throughout the apartment.

"Hmm." I grunted.

"Ugh, it smells stale. Hey is that all your luggage?" Kensi asks.

"Well, you know, with all the excitement at baggage claim today; ah, just as well. Probably stuff I wouldn't have need anyways." I say.

"There's enough trash here from Earth already." Kensi says, moving away from the door.

"Well, you do have a point about that." I say, agreeing with her.

I go to turn the video screen on, and some music is playing. I realize that it country music, and there was a person the screen playing a guitar. It was Kelly McCanon.

"Oh, look at this." I say.

I hear the newscaster start talking over the music.

" _This is a tape sent by the suspect of yesterday's Saint Lowell spaceport shooting"._ He said.

"What's this some kind of memorial program?" I ask, as I was unbuttoning the top two buttons of my trench coat.

There were a few more scenes, and then the music started to die down. The screen fades to black, and then snow covers the screen. When the screen comes back into focus, I see someone with a guitar case come on screen as the newscaster started talking again. The man adjusted the camera lens.

" _The following scenes contain graphic content, viewer discretion is advised. If you have children, please set your monitor to "L"." He says._

We get a good look at the person on screen. I recognize his face instantly.

"Hey, that's the guy." I say.

The suspect pulls a black screen down with the words _RIGHT NOW_ written on them. In another part of the train we that Kelly McCanon and her manager were by themselves.

 _What are they doing by themselves?_ I think.

 _I'll go take care of the baggage babe._ The manager said.

 _All right. Hurry back._ McCanon said.

We see the suspect walk on to the camera, and I can see what looks like gun in one hand, and a guitar in the other. I see the suspect raise the gun and prepare to fire as McCanon was aware that she wasn't alone anymore.

 _Who are you?_ McCanon asked.

The only thing that could be heard throughout my apartment were the sounds of gun fire and McCanon's scream.


	3. Chapter 3

We watch as the suspect drags McCanon from her seat into view of the camera. Then he looks up at the camera and points down. If I had to guess he wants the camera to look down at McCanon. We hear McCanon moan, and then she starts speaking.

" _What are you doing? Leave me alone. Somebody help me, please._ " McCanon pleads.

We can hear more moaning. Kelly started to look away, but the suspect gently pushed her head back to look at him.

" _Oh, no, don't._ " Kelly said.

There was silence for a time. That was until the suspect pointed his gun at her head, and that I realized that this little show is over. Kelly began speaking again, real fear was in her voice.

" _How did you know I was a…_ " Kelly started to ask.

There was another scream as the suspect fired his gun point blank at Kelly's head. The suspect must have fired at least ten plus rounds into her head. Kensi has a blank expression on her face, while I'm gritting my teeth at the barbarism that is being displayed on the television.

"My God." I say in disgust.

We can see electricity steaming from her head and we can hear trying to talk but it comes out in a garbled mess, and moaning. Her mouth opens wider and closes to the position it was at before being shot a few times, and her eyebrows wiggle up and down a few times. The moaning continues for a few more minutes, and stops when the suspect pushes her face into full view of the camera with the barrel of his gun. The camera stays on McCanon's face for a few seconds, and the slowly pans up; coming to resting on the suspects face. The suspect takes his glasses off, and looks right into the camera. The look on his face is one of satisfaction, and pleasure. He looks back at McCanon with a toothy smile on his face. The screen fades to black, and snow is dominating the screen.

" _This has been unedited material from video files as sent to us by the murder suspect. Here to comment on the footage is Ms. Julia Blanchen, an activist in the movement to drive out robots._ " The reporter said.

I stand up as the reporter started speaking again. I hear a noise. I look at the door and it's open. I look to the spot where Kensi was standing and it's empty. I didn't even give her a second thought. It's late, or what can be considered late for here on Mars, so shut and lock the door, and then get undressed and go to take a shower. I crawl into bed, and let my mind wander to all the things that had happened since arriving on Mars.

Firstly I was in a shootout with my new partner against a suspect that kill a robots. I don't like robots, but to outright murder the robot? Then I meet my squad for a debrief/brief for the current case, and then finally the suspect reaches out to the public with footage of the murder. That last part doesn't usually happen, but when you have been on the police force for fifteen plus years you don't bother to look twice at somethings. I drift off to sleep, but it's fitful at best.

I see the night, as I did every night since the incident, that Jess was killed over and over again. And then I wake up screaming from my nightmare. I look at the clock and its six o'clock in the morning. I have an hour and a half until I have to be on the job. I feel a shooting pain run through my right leg starting at the knee. There's not much I can do, but for some reason I grab my knee and ride out the pain. After the pain stops I get out of bed, and get dressed in sweat pants, and a zip up sweatshirt. I place a towel around my neck to catch the sweat. I run to work, seeing as how I don't have a car. It's not far, and I need the exercise.

Occasionally I throw a few punch combinations, exhaling as I punch. My run takes me through a park. I get to a spot where I can look out over the city, and it's gorgeous. The problem I have is off in the distance I see a replica of the Statue of Liberty. I'm tickled that they built one here. I look at the ceiling, or is it the roof, and I can see what looks like a clock, per se. Where the sunlight would stream through, I see roman numerals from I to XII. A fascinating way to tell time her on Mars, but I'm still distracted by the monument.

"It's amazing. They're everywhere you look. You think they could build something else." I grumble, and then head into work.

I'm towel drying the sweat off my head when I walk into work, and it looks like a ghost town; nobody is in. Not the desk jockey's, not even the brass. The only person in at the moment, even though it look like he had a rough night, is Eddie. I can hear him yawning as I walk into the locker room.

"You're here pretty early, Detective." Eddie says.

"Hmm?" I grunt.

I hear Eddie grunt as he is sitting up.

"She's gone already, the bade-totting terror in hot pants." Eddie says.

"Huh?" I say, wonder who he was talking about; then I realize that he was talking about Kensi.

Eddie grunts as he lays back down, pulling his coat over him, using it as a blanket. I walk over to my locker grabbing a few things out of my locker so I can take a shower, but Eddie continues to talk to me as I do so.

"Hey you want some free advice? Try not to get your partner killed this time. And here's one more thing. When she puts on her visor, whoo, watch out." Eddie says.

Next thing I see is Eddie sitting up and throwing a key at me.

"Oh, and before I forget, here. She's clean, gassed, and waitin' downstairs. And welcome to your new home." Eddie says, with a grin.

I hear him laugh, and grunt as he lays back down to get some more sleep before the day shift shows up for work. I shower, get dressed in same attire that I wore here from Earth: a pair of khaki pants, dress shoes, dress shirt, and a blue trench coat. I exit the building to see my car. It seventies muscle care with air vent in the hood. I get in, start the engine, and listen for a few moments as I enjoy the sound of the car; after I had my fun I pull out of the police station parking lot, and start the case proper. The steering is a little jerky, but I correct the fish tail, and drive away. I'm not sure where to go, but I'll figure it out. As I pull up to a stop light I hear what sounds like protesting. I look over my shoulder to see crowds in the streets protesting. I even see a few robots being surrounded. One person with a bull horn shouts.

" _Robots get out. Get out right now! Give us back our jobs!_ "

" _Give us back our jobs!_ " The crowd shouts.

I see a street sign that seemed familiar. I shut my eyes, and let myself flash back to the conversation I had with Hetty last night.

M.A.M.

Last night-

I hear beeping coming from the keys Hetty pushed as she was bring us a topographically map of the city.

"I'm sorry to have to break you in so soon, so we may as well get started." Hetty says.

"Umm. But, Hetty, is our section supposed to handle this matter?" I ask.

"Hmm? Just what do you mean by that, Mr. Deeks?" Hetty asked.

"Well, you see, the victim was definitely a robot, so I don't see why M.P.D. should get stuck dealing with it. Shouldn't we let some government agency take it off our hands?" I say.

"I wish it was that simple, bit it's the robot's origins that we're interested in finding out about. As you may not be aware, people here consider illegal robot technology and replication to be a criminal offense." Hetty said.

"Yes, Hetty. I guess so." I say.

"Are you going to tell me why you wanted to transfer to Mars? Besides my pestering you, and the possibility of being permanently benched." Hetty said.

"Well, I'd rather not, Hetty." I say.

"As you like, but let me warn you. If you have misguided compassion for robots, you won't make it here." Hetty said.

As Hetty continues with the briefing, I see a name on the screen. The street name was Josephson Street, and it must have something to do with the case. With the briefing finish, I left with Kensi for the night.

M.A.M.

The light turned green when I came back to reality. I turn on to Josephson Street, and follow it until it dead ends. When it dead ends I see a complex with a big building, surrounded by a lot of smaller buildings. The biggest building had a sign out front with the word _Conception_ written on it. I figured this company might know something about the illegal tech, or possibly knows somebody who knows how to manufacture the materials. As I pull into the parking lot I can hear the crowds shouting. Just like they did when I was driving over here. Shouting for the robots to get out, and for them to give back their jobs. I just walk by nonchalantly like they aren't there. I step into the lobby of the building and I'm amazed by the size and scope of the place. I can hear lite conversation, and to my surprise the staff was comprised entirely of robots, but given the fact that there are protesters at their front door, I shouldn't be.

"Wow, what a place." I say admiring the set up here. Then I see a staff member walk past. "Excuse me, miss."

"Why not?" I hear a familiar voice ask loudly.

"Huh." I say, distract from my task at hand by the outburst to my left.

I can barely make out the conversation, but the woman wearing the red getup is Kensi. I listen to the conversation in earnest as I make my way over to them. From the posture I see on Kensi' body it looks like she could jump over the counter and beat the woman senseless.

"I'm very sorry, but I've already explained to you that I cannot allow you to see him." The woman behind the counter said.

"You're telling me he doesn't remember the name "Kensi" at all?" Kensi asks.

"Mr. Granger said that he's never heard of you at all." The woman said.

"Listen don't mess with me, or you'll have a very bad day." Kensi said, hopping up on the counter and grabbing the woman's collar in one hand, while drawing back to throw a punch with the other hand.

"You better get out of here, or I'll call the security gadget." The woman said, holding both of her hands up.

"Yeah, I guess it's useless talking to a Second like you." Kens sad.

Kensi didn't know what hit her, so when I picked her up, and threw over my shoulder she was protesting her removal from the building kicking and screaming.

"Uh, just cancel that appointment." I say, and then exit the building.

I can barely hear Kensi speaking over the shouts of the protesters. Something about _How dare you!_ And _I have business here!_ But I just keep walking until I get to my car. When I get to my car I open the driver's side door, and toss Kensi into the passenger's seat.

"Just what the heck were you think trying accomplish back there?" I ask, as I move her foot from under me.

"You know, you should really should move your car. Or it might get trashed, by those idiots." Kensi says, but I distracted by the moronic protesters standing outside the Conception building.

"Huh?" I ask.

"So, what's next?" Kensi asked, with her feet up on the dashboard.

"Hmm? Well, immigration seems like a likely place." I say.

"Oh, Deeks. I already went there and couldn't find our guy on the list." Kensi said.

"Hmm." I grunt.

"Oh, I doubt we'll find any record of him, because thirty-seven percent of the population isn't registered here. Or I guess you didn't know that." Kensi said.

Kensi is doing her job, but her cavalier attitude is making me grinding my teeth, so I change the subject before I chip the finish on them.

"Then who were you trying to see at the Conception Company?" I ask.

"That's private. By the way, I've already done some leg work. Conception was the company that set the standards for the seconds. So, there you go. Uh, but, you know, I still pity 'em. The other manufacture, Hugite, passed them up, and it killed their aspirations, but that's the way it always goes." Kensi said. "Say, does this fancy machine have reclining seats? Huh. Partner?"

"If you're looking for a partner… then stop flying solo." I say.

Kensi puts her feet down on the floor, sighing in the process, and then lets out a giggle.

"Hey, Deeks, as your partner, can I make a suggestion?" Kensi asks.

"Yeah." I say.

"Let's eat. I'm starving." Kensi says.

"All tight." I say.

We get out of my car, and then start walking. We exit the parking lot, heading down a stairwell into what was definitely one of the seedier parts of St. Lowell; the red light district. We aren't even two feet away from the stairs and I see a billboard for an escort service with a picture on a naked woman on it.

 _It's been a while since I've been in a red light district. I forgot how crazy it could get._ I think.

When the billboard had passed from my view, I felt Kensi hook one of my arms with hers. I try to pull away, but she stays glued to my arm. Then I remember her conversation from the day before, _Ooh, what a sexy back. I just love broad shoulders_ , and I leave her be. I look to see a woman in lingerie assisting a customer, while another man was looking at merchandise in boxes behind her. A few shops further down I see a woman dancing, with _her_ goods on display. I see another stand that has face skins for robots.

Another shop show two men looking at a woman that is naked except for a towel, or some item of clothing tied to her forearms, covering her backside from the waist down. I have no idea where we are when I see people staring at me and Kensi. Even a man who is carrying a prostitute wearing a mermaid, or what could pass for a mermaid, outfit. I could hear him moan as we passed him by.

I find myself standing alone on a balcony overlooking the city, as Kensi ran off to get our food. A few seconds later I see something out the corner, and when I turn to see what or who it was; it was Kensi. I get a good look at what she was carrying. She was eating ice cream.

"Ice cream." Kensi said, handing me my cone.

"Junk food." I say, with a sigh. "I thought we were going to get something to eat. Oh, well whatever."

I take my cone and slowly start licking the _food_ that Kensi had bought for us. I take in the view, and I'm blown away. Los Angeles had some scenic views, but those views are nothing compared to the ones here. The towering buildings, the lights, and the setting sun as a back drop. The only problem with it are the protestors. I can still see the mobs from here, but their vocal chants and screams I cannot hear.

 _Thank god! I don't like robots either, but these people need to grow up and find work elsewhere._ I think.

"This is some kind of town. Things are going to get worse with all the remodeled Seconds. There's no way humans and robots are ever going to get along. Besides you can't trust robots." I say to no one in particular.

"You're no different." Kensi says.

"Hmm?" I ask, licking my cone.

"You and that guy are both the same." Kensi accuses.

"What do you mean that, nutcase?' I ask.

"It just seems that both of you have something against robots." Kensi says.

"Well. I'm sick of all these cyborgs, humanoids, and machines that only seem to copy us. Since I'm allowed to make a choice, I choose not to like something that pretends to be human.

Kensi scoffs at my indifference to robot life. I look into her eyes and from the offensive look in them, you would think that I just said death to all robots. Kensi stares at me for a little bit, puts her visor on, and then walks away, with a parting scoff. I start to walk towards her, but I stop myself before taking a second step. I finish my cone, and the head back to my car. Kensi was waiting for me by my car. I unlock the driver's side door, get it in, and then unlock the passenger's side door as I close my door. I remember that Kelly's manager was holed up in bar about two miles from our current location. So I thought we would go question him again; see if anything has changed since the death of his employee.

When we walk into the bar there's music playing softly in the back ground, and the manager is sitting at the bar with his head down, and a drink in his hand. I sit on the stool to his right side, and Kensi on his left.

"Now, you're positive that _that_ woman on the shuttle with you was Kelly McCanon?" I ask the manager. He didn't answer, so I pressed him. "Well?"

"Of course, I'm sure." He said, with slurred voice.

"Excuse me." Kensi said.

"Oh, please tell me you've Kelly, won't you, huh?" He asked Kensi, there was a hint of hysteria in his voice, as he had grabbed on to both of her shoulders. "No stinkin' robot can play a guitar and sing the way Kelly does. I'm her manager. I know her better than anybody. She's the most human woman I know."

I hear the man gasping in shocked surprise, and grunting as he hit the floor at my feet after Kensi punched in the jaw.

"Kensi!" I exclaim.

"You client is history, buddy. Just learn to live with it." Kensi says, and then heads for the door.

"Hey, wait!" I say, following Kensi out of the bar; shooting a parting glance at the drunken wreck of a man left sitting on the floor.


	4. Chapter 4

I'm out in the parking lot, and running to keep up with Kensi.

"Hey, wait up! Kensi!" I shout, when I'm halfway to my car.

"I want to go." Kensi says, turning to face me.

"Your conduct was hardly professional." I say, chastising my partner.

"Sorry, but that whiner was nothing but an idiot. Maybe you can sympathize with him, but I don't." Kensi, harshly.

"Hmm." I grunt, wondering Kensi is going with this.

We both continue to walk towards my car, when Kensi starts talking again.

"That jerk can't figure out how a robot could possibly be as good as his precious human star." Kensi said.

Kensi sighed as we continue walking to my car.

"Don't you understand? All of McCanon's talents, personality and dreams were inside that machine." Kensi said.

"Oh, my God." I say.

"Yeah, what is it?" Kensi snapped, and then turned her back to me.

"I didn't realize." I say.

 _I didn't realize that a robot could so design complex that they could be human, but then again with robots being manufactured illegally I shouldn't be surprised._ I think to myself.

There's nothing I could say to excuse my accusation, so I remained silent. Which didn't last long because my phone started beeping again.

"Huh." I say, reaching for my phone.

It's not a standard phone, with an ear piece and a receiver; it's more of a video phone with an ear bud. When I answer the call, I see that I have an email.

"Deeks here." I say, answer the call.

" _Uh, it's Eric. I'm a receiving a weird voice transmission. Is Kensi with you?_ " Eric asked.

"Uh." I say looking up from my phone.

I look around and realize that Kensi has left.

"No, I'm afraid I don't see her right now." I say.

" _It's coming to is in real time, so I'll transmit it to your mailbox. Log it and show it to Kensi right away._ " Eric said.

Just as Eric hangs up, I see a woman's face appear on the screen. She's wearing a robe, and has a towel on her head, as if she just stepped out of the shower.

" _I told you, an officer name Kensi._ " The woman said, trying not to panic.

" _Okay, okay, lady. We're looking for her right now._ " The man said, trying to calm her down.

The man on receiving the call didn't sound so… genuine with his concern for getting the woman help.

" _Please, you've got to help me. I'm a Third!_ " The woman exclaimed.

As soon as she utter the word Third, my eyes almost popped out of my head.

" _What's your name again? Wait. Let me get a pen. All right, go ahead._ " The man said.

" _Manning. It's Jessica Manning. I'm keeping a list of all the Thirds from Pluto. I can't go outside because of the protests, and the man on TV who killed that singer has been sending me mail! Something is going to happen to me unless you help me!_ " Jessica exclaimed as the phone call was coming to an end.

I get into my car, and a video appears on my screen. I'm frozen in place by the video, as if trapped by some trance; watching the scenes play out. I see a woman in an office behind a desk. She calls out to the person that stepped into her office, and then screams as she is murder, gun downed in cold blood. The next scene is of a woman sleeping in bed. She comes to as the murder enters her room. She sits up, with no top on her torso, just a few seconds before taking three bullets: one in each shoulder, and the third one in the sternum.

"Huh. Why are they all female?" I ask, puzzled by the string of murders being committed against women.

Another murder happens, and it's of a dancer. She doesn't say anything, just stares up at her murder as he fires a round into her head. Just as she is sliding down the wall, the suspect reaches out with his hand and lifts the body up by the chin. He smears her blood on the poster on the wall behind the woman as she drops back to the floor. I left the bar, and I decide to head over to Jessica Manning's shop. It's possible I might be able to get to her before anything happens. What I wasn't expecting was the suspect to call some local news station to talk some more. On my screen, I see the suspect lounging on a nice couch. A lot of the protestors were out in city streets, and they killed a lot of robots. They put the robot's body in a pile, stacking them on top of each other and starting a bon fire. I hear some person yelling at the suspect.

" _TV piracy is a felony, pal. You could get eight years of hard labor in prison. Who the heck are you?_ " The man asked.

" _I'm Rene D'Anclaude._ " The suspect said.

" _Huh?_ " The man asked.

" _It's my name._ " D'Anclaude said.

" _So just who do you think you are, mister?_ " The man asked.

" _There are other things to concern yourselves with. Let me show you._ " D'Anclaude said.

D'Anclaude got up off the couch, and walk over to a table in the middle of the room he was in. He cleared his throat before continuing his speech.

" _Robots are disguising themselves as humans. Am I wrong? It's my duty to do something about this. You must be rid of those so-called Thirds. First contestant. This is Jessica Manning._ " D'Anclaude said.

"Crap!" I said.

" _A snobbish, bourgeois artist who lives and works right here among you. She had you all fooled."_ D'Anclaude said, leaning on the table. He laughs before continue, as I slam my foot on the gas pedal." _What should we do about her?_ "

D'Anclaude starts laughing. It's an easy laugh at first, but then it becomes a full-blown maniacal laugh. I pull up front of Jessica's shop; the windows are blown out and the lights are off. I realize that my efforts to save her are in vain. I go in anyways, with my gun drawn. I don't know if there are any survivors. I give a precursor sweep of the main entrance and it's clear, but I hear a woman crying from rear of the shop. I move to the back end to see a young woman crying in the moon light that is spilling through the window next to her. I put my gun away as I approach her.

"Hey, are okay? Where's Miss. Manning?" I ask.

The woman throws her arms around me and continues to cry. I'm taking back by her actions.

"Jessica! Save her, please! Why?" The woman exclaims, and continues to sob.

I wrap one arm around her waist, the other bracing her neck. The picture she was crying in front of was of an angel talking to a man. I stare at the picture a little bit before I answer the woman, determination on my face. An angel never saved Jessica when I needed them to, so I will do this myself; even though I know it will be in vain.

"It's all right. You just wait here." I say.

I extricate myself from the distraught woman's embrace and exit the shop. I remember passing a group of protestors on my way to the shop so I head down to the gathering. When I get down there, there's more screaming and shout for robots vacate the jobs their currently presiding in. I have to push my way through the crowd shouting.

"Let me through! Police! Hey!"

I get to the front of the group and I can see that I misjudged the size of the bon fire.

 _It's massive! It has to be at least six feet tall._ I think.

The heat radiating off of the fire is so strong that I have turn my head away and lift my arm to shield my face from the blaze. The chanting continues, but something odd happens. When I turn back to look at the fire I see a robot, whose mouth was hanging open, come to life; as if an act of self-preservation, or as a last act of defiance. I see its eyes light up. Almost as if it were transmitting something.

"Huh?" I say.

Somewhere on the other side of town Kensi was sitting on a swing set. She feels a shock go through her, and then she see it. On her visor, Kensi see what the robot in the fire near Deeks was sending out.

"It's them. The list of Thirds." Kensi says. "Yes. And then? No, wait!"

The transmission was over as soon as it hit Kensi. Kensi ran over the list of names again, and then buried it. As if by some otherworldly force Kensi knew what was about to happen, and took off running. On the other side of town I was wandering the back alleys looking for clues. What I wasn't expecting was a run in with him. I hear a noise, and when I turn to see what was making it, and saw Rene D'Anclaude twirling the hand cuffs on his wrist. I pull my gun, and give chase. As I'm chasing D'Anclaude through the back alley, it never occurred to me that I should radio in for back up. I can hear D'Anclaude's maniacal laughter as we're running through the alleys. I'm gaining on him, and when I turn a corner I see the alley splits off in two different directions but he is nowhere to be seen.

 _How did I lose him? This alleyway is pretty big, but where did he go?_ I think.

Off in the distance I see a church, and I make my way there. Back out in the streets Kensi is standing in front of the same fire I was standing at a few minutes ago. She just stands there, looking at the dead robot that sent her the list. Kensi finally snaps out of her trance when she church bell tolling the hour. Back at the church, I'm exploring the building for a time. As I step out onto the interior balcony I hear gun fire and D'Anclaude's maniacal laughter again. I also hear the shattering of a stain glass window that has been blown out by a ricochet bullet.

"Slow down!" D'Anclaude exclaims.

I starting running when the first shots rang out, but I take a round in my right leg, at the knee.

"Ah!" I exclaim.

The pain course through my right leg is excruciating it stops me in mid stride. When I turn back to face D'Anclaude, I flash back to the night that Jess was kill, and as it then the killer pointed a gun at me and was shot from behind. I come back to the present just as D'Anclaude was begin to speak, with his gun drawn, pointed at me.

"You, of all people should understand my work. After all, didn't a cyborg kill you partner? They're a pestilence." He said.

 _If he's not going to shoot me, then I'm going to take this time to go on the offensive._ I think.

I stand up upright, with some trouble, grunting as I adjust to the pain in my right leg. The shock on his face evident.

"Hmm? But your leg." D'Anclaude says.

I lunge for him, pushing him out the door, and onto the balcony. I throw a few knees into his midsection before he catches my right leg at the knee.

"Hey, sailor, what's this?" D'Anclaude asks.

He bites the fabric over my knee, and tears it away as he flips me onto my back. I let a loud grunt as I go flying onto the concrete, and D'Anclaude lets out his maniacal laugh when he sees that my right leg is a cybernetic limb.

"You've got to be kidding me. A fake leg? Surely the ironic humor of this hasn't escaped you." He says.

I'm sweating, and breathing heavily from exhaustion. I've never been in a situation like this; where I pushed my leg to this extreme. D'Anclaude starts laughing again.

"You're almost a stinking cyborg yourself, you freak." He shouts.

We hear another bell begin to ringing from an adjacent tower.

"Huh?" He asks.

The bell continues to toll, and the both of us are looking for which tower it's coming from, or if there's a new player about to enter the field. On a nearby tower a shadowy figure carrying one of the corpses from the fire. Behind the dome we the crane kick into operation. I see the shadow as it fall across the dome.

"What's that? Huh?" D'Anclaude asked.

The crane was thirty feet from hitting the section of the roof we were on, and D'Anclaude had quit paying attention to me. So I ripped my leg from his grasp, and threw him back into the building. I jump off the balcony and ran out onto the roof just in time to avoid being smashed by the crane. There's a big dust cloud from where the crane made contact with the church. It takes a few minutes for the cloud to dissipate, but what catches my attention is who operated the crane. I can't see their face, but I can make out their silhouette from here. I can also make her attire from here to.

"It's you." I say.

"Until now you've never witnessed the true power of a Third. Allow me to demonstrate." Kensi said, jumping onto neck of the crane.

Just as the smoke had almost clear Kensi was a third of a way down the neck of the crane, jogging. I can hear D'Anclaude force himself through the rubble, coughing, trying to clear the air of dust. I can see that Kensi has cleared the two-thirds of the neck and is, for a lack of a better word, a blur. The speed at which she is running at is not human. D'Anclaude gets up and starts firing on Kensi; Kensi throws her arms up and the bullets are ricocheting off of them, while some are burying themselves into her body.

"Eat this! Burn, you misfit!" D'Anclaude shouts, as he throws a grenade at Kensi.

The grenade explode, and before the smoke clears I see Kensi come rushing out of the smoke, I can see where the bullets had entered her body. Some of the wounds had a blood trail, others did not; but Kensi was determined to screw D'Anclaudes' day up. I hear Kensi yells as she jumps in the air, poised to strike. D'Anclaude gasps, but draws a knife just mere seconds before they collide. I hear grunting, who it is I have no idea. I'm panting as I run get close to see what is going on. I stand frozen, watching the scene in front of me. I see the silhouette of their bodies on the roof.

From I here thought I saw Kensi eyes open, just barely, because the next thing that happens is Kensi reaches out and grabs D'Anclaude's throat, but Kensi didn't choke him. I can see electricity entering his body through her hand. I can hear D'Anclaude scream out in pain. His screams echo throughout the area for about thirty seconds, which turn into gagging until he loses consciousness. Just as Kensi is pulling the knife he speaks again.

"You monster" He says.

I hear the weapon clanging as Kensi grabs D'Anclaude by the collar of his coat.

"Yeah, that's. I'm a monster. Just another for a Third in you book." Kensi said.

I'm looking on in horror at the sight in front of me. My previous thoughts of prejudice against robots starting to dissolve because of my partner.

"What are you going to do, destroy me? Why? What did we ever do to humans? If humans don't want me, then why did they create me?" Kensi shouts, with tears streaming down her face.

I can see Kensi raise her hand like she was about to punch in the face, as if some kind of poetic justice for all the deaths he has cause to date, but I intervene.

"Don't do it! Just cuff him!" I shout. "You're a police officer first, Kensi, and you know what our duty is." I say, reaching my hand out trying to stop her through some unseen force. I can see her falter, she still wants to hit him, but my words are reaching her. "Kensi it doesn't matter that you're a Third. You're a cop, and you're my partner."

I see the fight go out of Kensi, and she lowers her hand down, as she lays D'Anclaude back to the ground. I walk back onto the balcony, to help Kensi in whatever capacity needed. I can still see a trail of tears on her face, her body shaking from her sobbing, and her hands are balled into fist. I looking on in pity at my partner, the current wreck she has become to prove something; what it is I have no idea. She sits upright, and then realizes that she is not properly dressed, I think the term would be dressed.

"No, don't look at me." Kensi says, turning away and cover herself up as if she was ashamed to let me see her body in its current stated, all bloody and riddled with bullet holes.

She continues to cry, but gives up all pretenses and stops crying. She stands up and faces me, with her arms covering her body. A few seconds later she drops her arms to her side, and lowers her head in defeat, or shame.

"You had already figured out that I wasn't a human, didn't you? I feel like some kind of grotesque puppet. I can walk and talk and I can laugh and I can cry." She says.

I can see tears streaming down her face. I close my eyes and shake my head at her. I don't care what Kensi origins are, she's my partner.

 _And right now my partner could use medical help._ I think.

"But I'm only a monstrous doll." Kensi said, tears flying from her eyes as she prepares to run.

The next thing I see is Kensi do a swan diver over the side of the balcony, and into the river.

"No!" I scream, too late to stop her.

A few seconds later I hear water splashing as Kensi breaks the surface of the water. I look out over the bay, and I can see the city on the other side; I have no idea where Kensi will come to shore.


	5. Chapter 5

As I'm leaving the station house I see two partners who, from what Kensi said, were forced to work together. One of the partners who, just like me, had transferred from earth.

"Hey Ross. Hey Armitage." I say, passing the partners.

"Hey Deeks." Both Ross and Armitage said without looking up from their paperwork.

I exit the stationhouse and get into my car. We had another debrief because there had been another murder, and Kensi is still in the wind. I get into my car and head home. On the way home, my personal debrief with Hetty was still ringing in my ears. Hetty practically accused Kensi disappearance being my fault.

M.A.M.

Hetty's office-

I entered Hetty's office to see her staring out the window.

"Kensi carries a special A-class license." Hetty says.

"I know." I say.

"But she choose to become a cop. A good one. You understand what I'm getting at?" Hetty asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"The reason she disappeared is because of you, Mr. Deeks." Hetty said, turning from looking out her office window.

"Hetty, you can interrogate me all you want. I'm used to it." I say.

"Mr. Deeks, that won't be necessary. If you don't know anything, that's good enough for me, and leave it at that. I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I've learned from experience to follow my instinct." Hetty said.

Something about her next sentence puts me on edge.

"I have a hunch there's some kind of connection between Kensi and the killings of the Third types." Hetty said.

I scrunch my face up to make it look like I was thinking seriously about what she said; while in reality I was trying to cover up that fact that I'm seething inside that Hetty would assume that Kensi could possibly be involved with the slayings. I hear Hetty chuckling as she continues, and halfway through her sentence she turns to look back out the window.

"This could get real fun. If an officer is rumored to be a humanoid, the crap could hit the fan, so let's just keep this between you, me and the wall." Hetty said.

M.A.M.

I can still hear Hetty's warning echoing in my thoughts as I pick up speed to get home. I'm tired, and it's been a long day.

 _Kensi isn't a good cop. She's a great one._ I think.

I park my car around the corner, and make my way up to my apartment. The rain that started as I was leaving the station house was relentless. It continues to fall, soaking everyone unlucky enough to find shelter from its assault. My knee is starting to ache, but the pain is bearable for the time being. As I approach my room I can see the keypad light up as I entered the passcode.

 _9-4-6-4-5-3-2-1-8-3-0-7_

I enter my apartment and look around. I don't know why I bother to look around, but I do anyways; Kensi isn't here. I look at the desk against the wall on my left and I can see that Kensi might have been here because I can see one of her side arms, two magazines and some cleaning equipment out on the table. A shadow is cast on the back wall of the rain cascading down the window. I cross over to the bed, and sit down. I sit in silence for a moment contemplating where Kensi could be. That was until my knee started to flare up in pain, eliciting a grunt from me. I rest my hand on my knee, willing the pain to go away.

"Always hurts like heck when the rain comes." I say.

Something lights up because where darkness had enshrouded the right side of my body, now a light is shining brightly.

"Hmm?" I say, turning to look at what was cause the disturbance.

I turn to see a picture of Kensi and some older gentleman standing side by side. Then the picture comes to life, and I see Kensi throw her arms around the man. The man smiles as he embraces Kensi. Deep down inside I'm envious of Kensi relationship with the man because he looking upon her with love; that was something I never got from my father. After a moment of silence, something beckons for me to speak.

"Start message." I say.

I hear a beeping sound as the video screen on the wall behinds me lights up with the letters _REC_ in the upper left hand corner.

"Hey, where are you? Are you okay?" I ask, with a chuckle. "Your _partner's_ concerned. Hetty's no dummy. She suspects you're a Third. It appears D'Anclaude is working with someone, because Thirds are still being murdered. Kensi, don't let bitterness change you. Come back, please."

Elsewhere in the city, Kensi happened to be crossing the bridge in the pouring rain. She was no longer wearing her signature red outfit. She had on a cyber punk cloak, thigh-high stockings and boots but very little else can be seen on her. Just as she got off the bridge and made her way into an alley, Kensi got my message.

M.A.M.

Couple of days later I'm called out to another crime scene, and it was a particularly nasty one. Detectives were station outside to keep the neighbors back, and the press from entering the scene. Inside I can see lightning light up the sky, and hear the thunderclaps punctuating the silence periodically. The lightning and thunder went on for hours. From my position, I have knelt down to get a better look at the victim's face, I can Eric see standing next to me holding a piece of cloth over his mouth and nose; the smell was pretty bad. On the other side of me two more officers from C.S.U.; one was unpacking a tool box and the other was take pictures.

The victim was killed in front of the book case, which was to the left of her desk; there were a few books scattered around the floor, and there were two bullet holes in the book case. The woman had two bullet holes in her head. One was smack dab in the middle of her forehead, and the other above her right eyebrow. The gunshot to her eyebrow broke her glasses, shattering the lens in two. There was copious amounts of blood all over her face, most of it cover by her long silver hair; some of the blood has soaked into her blouse and skirt. The victim was a writer because the latest novel she was working on was still open on the computer on her desk. The blink cursor was waiting for the next word to be spoken. The lightning flashes on occasion, drowning out the woman's features.

"This makes number seven. Oh, God, I think I'm gonna puke." Eric said, the queasiness thick in his voice.

"Who the heck is doing this?" I ask.

"I can only think of two people with the means and motivation." Eric said.

"Hmm?" I ask, looking up at Eric.

"I'm talking about Rene D'Anclaude and Kensi." Eric said.

"What's that?" I ask, not believing what I just heard.

"Yeah, I know. It's weird to think about, but she talked to me about it once. She pities the robots used for crime, so she kills them quickly. But I can't believe she'd actually-" Eric said, trailing off.

We both know that Kensi wouldn't kill unjustifiably, but she is capable of killing a robot and has done in the past. I ask the question; albeit, I already know the answer to that question.

"Does that mean Kensi is a suspect?" I ask.

"Well, you can't just deny the evidence. The woman's last words said it all." Eric said.

On the computer screen her last words were written:

 _Who's there? Who are you? Are you Armitage? Are you the one that contacted me? You fooled me._

"The whole department is shocked, but Hetty had suspicions about her all along. She's already issued a warrant for her arrest, and there's an A.P.B. out on her." Eric continued.

"Why that sly old fox." I say.

I get an idea and turn to the computer.

"Access mail. Log file: Armitage." I say.

On the screen I see my words being written.

"Open file." I say.

When the computer goes to access the file, the words _No Graphic_ appear on the screen. There was silence for a moment, until we hear a voice of a young boy, possibly a teenager.

"This is Pluto." The voice in the computer said.

"It's Pluto." I say, to no one in particular.

"I'm sending the message by use of Armitage's I.D. I'm a Third, just like you and all the others." Pluto continued.

"Hey, Eric. Find out where this mail originated from." I say, with Pluto continuing in the back ground.

"You got it." Eric said.

As I'm leaving the crime scene I send a message to Kensi that I found about Pluto. She writes back saying that she's found him, and that she wants me to come along. We meet a few days later at a school where Pluto attends. I pull up to the school and I see Kensi sitting on top of the jungle gym. In the distance I can hear the laughter of children and one asking about going to see a movie over the weekend. I announce myself before I approach Kensi; not wanting to get injured. I remember what she did to D'Anclaude.

"Hey, I was worried about you." I say, as I was approaching the playground equipment.

"I used to love the playground after school. I was a pretty clumsy kid though." Kensi said.

 _Hmm._ I think to myself, trying to imagine Kensi as kid.

"I took a tumble off the seesaw once and bawled all the way home." Kensi continued.

"Listen, did you know that M.P.D. has been searching for you?" I ask.

I watch as Kensi leaps down off the jungle gym, and the pulls her visor off.

"But you're looking for Pluto, right? Let's go." Kensi says, as runs up to me, linking our arms, and then starts to drag me to the school; as a giggle escaping her lips.

"Kensi?" I say, more a statement than a question, stopping Kensi in her tracks.

"What?" Kensi asks, baffled by my reaction.

"I believe in you." I say, quietly just so the two us can hear it.

Kensi face was blank for a moment, and then she relaxed as tiny smile graced her face. We enter the building and started searching the building; going from room to room. Then after a half an hour of searching Kensi announces.

"There's that's him. I'm sure of it." Kensi says, looking through the window in the door into the classroom.

"Huh? But he's a boy." I say.

I see a boy, maybe thirteen, sitting on a piano doing something a handheld computer. He has dark skin, very short brown hair, and brown eyes. He's wearing a cyber punk coat, a white shirt, shorts, and boots.

"How do you do, Pluto? It's nice to meet you." Kensi says, as she opens the door and we enter the room.

"Please don't call me by my handle again. You can use my given name: Dominic Vail." He said.

Kensi laughs, and then continues.

"I'm sorry. By the way, shouldn't you be in class?" Kensi asks, nonchalantly.

"No. I'm transferring my thoughts to the main memory at the navigation center." Dominic said.

"Hmm?" Kensi asks.

Kensi and I share a look.

"What for?" We ask.

Dominic sighs, and then continues.

"To make a backup of myself, obviously." He says.

Dominic slides off the piano, puts his hands and computer in his pockets, and then heads for the door.

"Well, let's go." He says.

"Huh? Where?" Kensi asks.

"To the memory server at the ad tower, of course. You wanna learn the purpose of the Thirds, don't you?" Dominic asks.

We concede his point, and exit the building. We jump in my car head to the ad tower, and the drive is made in silence. When we arrive at the tower, we make our way in and head for the elevator; it's an open air freight elevator. When the elevator is half way down the shaft I break the silence.

"I can't believe it. You're a Third?" I ask.

"Yes, I'm a Third. The last one made." Dominic said.

At that very moment the elevator suddenly stopped, causing Kensi to gasp.

"What's wrong? Why'd the elevator stop?" Kensi asked, her senses we thrown into overdrive. Almost as if she was expecting.

"I don't know." I say

The shaft is so quiet that we can hear the beeping coming from the control panel. Then the elevator lurches ever so slightly.

"Huh?" The three of us ask.

Then, all of a sudden, the elevator starts plummeting to the bottom of the shaft, and I pull Dominic into me, trying to cover him with my body, while I hit the controls trying to get a response.

"It won't stop." I say, gruffly.

I struggle against the downward momentum, while holding Dominic close, as I walk to the back of the elevator cart. Dominic starts talking, but I can barely hear him over the wind rush past my head.

"We're dropping pretty fast. At this rate, we're going to die for sure." He said.

I have my eyes closed to protect them from the wind. I notice it gets dark, and the wind dies down, as Kensi shadow falls over me. I open my eyes to see that Kensi is going to use her body to brace the fall for the three off us. I noticed that under that cape that Kensi was wearing nothing but red lingerie under it.

 _That is definitely not standard M.P.D. getup._ I think to myself.

"Deeks, hold on tight to him." Kensi says.

Kensi squats down, grabbing the rail with her hands and placing her feet flat on it. Where nose to nose, and Kensi smells wonderful.

 _Funny. We all could possibly die, or be mortally wounded, and I'm getting turned on by Kensi._ I think.

"Do you really think this is going to work?" I ask, gruffly.

"You got any ideas?" Kensi asks.

I just stare Kensi in the eyes, and she knows my answer. So the three of us are riding on an elevator that's barreling down the shaft at full speed; at some point we shut our eyes.

 _Not that closing our eyes is going to magically slow the cart down._ I think to myself.

It must have been ten to fifteen minutes before the cart his the bottom. At the bottom of the shaft was a reservoir that had to be fifty to hundred feet deep. The impact upon hitting the water drew a grunt from me and Kensi. My body is experience a higher amount of pain because I'm human. Upon impacting with the walkway at the bottom water it displaced a lot of water, while a steam and dust cloud are thrown into the air from the water cooling off the brakes; also the dust cloud because of the cart colliding with the walkway at a high rate of speed. It takes a few minutes for the clouds to clear, but when it does Kensi finds herself on the cart by herself. About thirty feet she can away see both Dominic and I on the walk way.

 _We seem to be in a sewer system of some kind._ I think.

"Deeks?" Kensi ask, fearing the worse upon seeing my wounded body.

I'm hunched over, bracing my left arm against my chest, and my right arm hangs limply. Grunting as I look up at Kensi because I'm in serious pain; I can fell the blood running down the left side of my face and a trail coming out of my mouth.

"I think my right and ribs are broken." I say, coughing up blood.

I can hear Dominic gasping next to me at the extent of the damage, but something draws his attention to the water.

"Huh?" Dominic says.

Coming out of the water next to Kensi is a mobile walker; its purpose was to capture suspects. The walker is comprised of the pod where the operator sits, two arms – or the equivalent of arms – with hands at the ends of the appendages, and a giant wheel on the back. It's possible, given the rash string of murders, that the operator could be using to the walker to kill all of us. Which is my current thought process because I can see the camera on the walker turn to Kensi and it recognizes her as a robot.

 _That would be our killer._ I think.

"Kensi don't get any closer!" I exclaim.

Just as finish I speaking one of the arms reared back and the hand was being slammed down on top of Kensi. She gasps, and barely jumps out of the way in time.

"Darn you." Kensi says, pulling her gun.

As soon as her feet are back in contact with the ground Kensi lines up a shot and starts firing upon the walker. A few shoots hit the pod, but then the closes arm is raised to block the rest.

"He's fast." Kensi says.

Kensi holsters her weapon, and then runs over to me and Dominic. Kensi kneels down, and prepares to help me up.

"Come on! We gotta run for it!" Kensi exclaims.

"Go on. Leave me here." I say.

"No! I'll help you. Let's go!" Kensi exclaims.

I can hear the joints on the walker groan as it tries to get around the aftermath of the elevator wreckage. I get my left arm hooked around Kensi neck, and the three of us take off running down an enclosed hallway. I'm grunting trying to keep up with Kensi pace; my grip on reality is slipping because of the immense pain that I'm in. I can hear Kensi panting from carrying my dead weight, and I can hear Dominic's footsteps behind us. We can hear the walker entering the hallway. Dominic gets around in front of us. We come to a bridge that connects the two walkways, but Dominic decides to keep on our path in case there's a way out up ahead.

At the end of the walkway is a fence that is blocking us in, as the water cascades over the side into another body of water some hundred feet below.

 _We're not going to survive that jump._ I think.

"Oh, my God." Kensi says.

From behind us we can hear the walker scraping against the bridges and the ceiling. We all turn to see the walker drive by our hallway, and I can hear Dominic gasping. And then not long after the walker passes our hallway it doubles back and is coming towards us.

"It looks like the only choice is to fight." Kensi says.

Kensi gently pushes me off of her arm, which hurt like crazy, and took off running down the hallway at the walker; the exhaustion and pain causes me collapse onto the floor. Upon closing in on the walker Kensi jumps onto it and pulls a panel off, and jams her coat into it. Underneath the panel was an exhaust port, so in time it would overheat. The walker lurched destroying the bridge it was about to cross over, which send Kensi flying. I can hear her screaming as she is thrown into the air, and I can hear her cough up water. As Kensi break the water she sucks in a mouth full of air. Just as she is looking up at the walker one of its hands grabs Kensi and pulls her out of the water.

I watch as the driver inspects Kensi, and then starts to slowly crush her in its grasp. I hear her scream, as I look up at the walker I can see Kensi struggling to get out of its grasp. I can hear Kensi grunts of pain as I reach for my gun. Dominic reacts when he sees my gun pointed at the walker, and moves to raise my arm.

"Aim it up!" I growl.

"If Kensi killed, then there's gonna be no hope for me." Dominic says.

Dominic lines up the shot, and I can see something glowing in my peripheral vision. Next thing I hear besides Kensi screams is my gun firing off.

 _How did he do that? I know I didn't pull the trigger. I can barely lift my arm._ I think.

The shot hits at a point that causes the lip of the pod to pop off. There's a cloud of smoke as the atmosphere of the walker's pod is adjusting to the atmosphere of the sewer system. I can hear Kensi gasping as she falls into the water. Just as she is falling into the water I can hear D'Anclaude cackling at our feeble attempts to stop him.

"It's D'Anclaude. I just don't believe it." Kensi says, in shocked surprise after she dragged herself out of the water.

"Surprise, surprise. Ha. Did you miss me?" D'Anclaude asks.

My grasp on reality is waning again, and I hear Kensi yell an obscene word at D'Anclaude. Kensi fires her gun at D'Anclaude. Instead of blocking the incoming shots, D'Anclaude attacks Kensi with the closes arm. As Kensi jumped out of the way D'Anclaude hit the break and gas at the same time, which causes the wheel to spin forward. Kensi stared in shocked amazement at the wheel come at her. The wheel made contact Kensi, which sent her flying into fence, trapping both of Kensi hands and feet between the posts. I can hear Kensi gasping as she hits the grate.

"Oh! Ow!" Kensi exclaims in pain.

D'Anclaude cackles as he pulls the walker up the grate. I can see Kensi struggling against her restraints as D'Anclaude starts to talk.

"I won't let you die alone, cheri. The other two will join you." He says, lifting Kensi chin so she can see both me and Dominic on the ground.

Kensi gets her hand free as she screams more obscenities at D'Anclaude, and punches him in the nose with a right hook; which sends the walker flying back and I can hear a D'Anclaude screaming at the top of him lungs. As the walker crashes into the water D'Anclaude screams had died out.

"He's not human." Kensi says, in shocked surprise.

The exhaust port is starting to overheat because of the cloak that is keeping air from escaping.

"Nice right hook, but I'm going to crush the three of you and get on with my life. I have places to go and robots to kill." D'Anclaude exclaims.

At that moment the circuit board on the walker blew because the buildup of exhaust, and started to lurch forward.

"Huh?" D'Anclaude says.

The tire starts to screeching, as if it wanted to respond to D'Anclaude's wishes, but the walker kept moving forward. D'Anclaude was looking around wildly for whatever was causing the walker to act up.

"What the-" D'Anclaude started to ask when he saw that he was nose to nose with Kensi.

"Hi there. Bon voyage, Rene." Kensi said, and then pointed down.

D'Anclaude gasped at his misfortune, and Kensi smiled a wicked grin at him because D'Anclaude didn't have to foresight to remove his handcuff that Kensi had thrown at him back at the airport a few weeks ago.

"Give me the keys! Please unlock it!" D'Anclaude exclaimed.

 _What bad guy starts pleading for you to save him?_ I think to myself.

D'Anclaude started screaming as he went over the cliff with the walker.

"Bye-bye." Kensi says as she jumps off the walker.

We can barely hear the walker splashes into the water at the bottom of the cliff.

 _A/N: I'm going to be post a lot of stories in the near future, and they won't always be N.C.I.S., but don't worry. I have another forum that I write stories for, and one story is pretty long. I won't be taking a break from writing, I'm just going to take my time with posting your stories. That's all._


	6. Chapter 6

Kensi walks back from the ledge towards Dom and me.

"I'm curious. Why aren't the other Thirds as strong as you?" I ask.

"Security should be here any minute. I'm sure they'll take care of you." Kensi said ignoring my question.

"No, you don't have to run and hide now. Officers don't leave their injured behind." I said.

Kensi doesn't say anything in response. She drops a phone on the ground at my feet, and then turns and walks away with Dom, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. They're ten feet from me when I say.

"You're cold lady." coughing up more blood.

I hear them stop walking, as if my comment was a slap in the face, but it was only a beat. I hear footsteps in a hurried rush coming back to me. I look up to see that it was Kensi. She bends over and kisses me, gently, on the lips. I stare at Kensi in shocked surprise. Neither one of us closes our eyes. Kensi stands upright, and then says.

"I will always be cold."

I start to pass out, but not before groaning and saying.

"Kensi."

I close my eyes for a moment. But when I open my eyes again, just for a second, I see Kensi and Dom walking away. Their backs are the last thing I see before I blackout. When I get to the hospital I go into surgery immediately. I have no idea how long the surgery lasts. There are a couple of doctors nearby conversing about my injuries.

"I'm amazed he survived with all the injuries he sustained. His entire chest area was damaged, and the right arm was severed. Over fifty percent of his body will be artificial replacement parts. Isn't that gonna be a problem for a policeman?" The first doctor asked.

"For a recruit, maybe, but not for this cowboy." The second doctor said.

Sometime after surgery I wake up, and the nurse comes to check on me. There was a hassle about whether or not I should be up and moving around, but a doctor signed off. I'm walking around the hospital wing trying to get acclimated to my new parts, but it's more difficult than when I got the new leg a last year. I hear someone laughing, I look up to see that it's Eddie.

"I sure hope you feel better than you look." Eddie said.

"I can't understand why my other arm hurts so much." I say.

"The doctor threw in some kind of new nervous system for you, so it's probably just a side effect." Eddie said. He turns to walk away. "At any rate there's something I want to show you."

We head for the elevator and take it to the basement.

 _There is only one reason to go into the basement of a hospital. The morgue._ I think.

We enter the morgue, and walk along the wall that holds all the deceased people waiting to be autopsied, or taken to the funeral home. Eddie opens a door, pulls out the slab, and then unzips then it. Judging by the frame of the deceased it was a woman. To my horror the deceased is Kelly McCanon.

"It's Kelly McCanon. Why haven't they disposed of her body yet?" I asked.

"Hey, she's a real find. You just don't throw something like her away." Eddie says looking over his shoulder at me. When he looks back at the body his attitude becomes more serious, unzipping the body bag just past the breast bone.

"Except for a few functions, Thirds are perfect synthetic organisms. They can simulate every physical aspect of the human body. The big mystery that's had everybody running in circles is: Why have all the Thirds been female? Do you know?"

I stare at Eddie with a blank face, shaking my head.

"After the victims were autopsied, we discovered that this wasn't just a case of robot destruction. It was murder. I'll show ya." Eddie said.

Eddie unzips the body bag down to the top of her thigh, exposing her entire trunk. I can see incision marks on her abdomen.

"Our country-western singer here? She was pregnant." Eddie said.

My eyes almost hit my eyebrows. The word _pregnant_ kicks something loose in my memory. It was the conversation with McCanon's manager.

 _No stinking robot can play a guitar and sing the way Kelly does. I'm her manager. I know her better than anybody. She's the most human woman I know._

I stare in shock at the dead woman sitting on the table in front of me. And then something else crosses my mind.

 _Is Kensi a third? And if she is, can she get pregnant?_ I think.

M.A.M.

Across town in a warehouse somewhere, Kensi and Dom were talking about the perks of being a Third compared to a regular robot. Dom had just revealed the fact that Thirds can get pregnant, too. Dom was on one side of the room, while Kensi was on other side looking in a busted mirror.

"I can't believe I'm capable of giving birth." Kensi said.

Somewhere between the sewer, and the warehouse Kensi got back into her usual attire: red hot pants, brassiere, boots, and full length gloves.

"Quite the revelation, isn't it? That's the whole purpose of the Third types. You can step beyond the bounds of conventional robots just by getting pregnant. Mommy Kensi. Hmm." Dom said.

"Not funny. It's too weird." Kensi said. Then she turned to look at Dom. "But you, what's your role?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out. "What's the point of creating a male kid? The C.P.U. showed my serial number as the last Third made. The final model off the line." Dom said.

"Not quite. We can breed now." Kensi said.

"Now I understand why the Thirds were made to seem so human, not just in appearance but emotionally, like the murdered singer and that novelist. They weren't just machines they had souls. It take more than the right plumbing to procreate. Yes, sir, the perfect receptacle for human babies." Dom said.

During his speech Dom had made his way standing some distance behind Kensi next to support beam. Dom starts chuckling. Something set Kensi off. Either his speech, or his laugh, but Kensi got anger and attacked Dom.

"What's so funny, huh?" Kensi asked throwing punch.

Dom caught Kensi wrist, and threw her against the beam. Placing both hands on her shoulders, pinning her between him and the beam.

"Jerk." Kensi said just short of a growl.

"Tsk-tsk. What's the matter? Have I touched a nerve?" Dom asked. Dom leaned and whispered in Kensi ear. "Maternal clock ticking? Maybe you'd like Detective Deeks to set your alarm."

When Dom mention that Deeks was going to get her pregnant, Kensi threw a punch aiming for Dom's face, but he jumped out of the way. Dom started laughing, but was cut short when Kensi spoke.

"Shut up!"

Dom stopped laughing instantly. He watched as Kensi wrapped her arms around her waist, trying to block something from getting to her.

"I was just kidding." Dom said.

"Dom, do you know why they made us?" Kensi asked.

"I don't, but I'll bet Granger does." Dom said.

"Or D'Anclaude. He must have some part in this." Kensi said.

Kensi and Dom stood in silence for a few minutes before exiting the warehouse. Making their way to the mainframe.

M.A.M

Back at the station I make my way to Hetty's office to be brought up to date on the current events of the case since I was in the hospital. They do things strange here on Mars. If you get injured in the line of duty back on Earth you get three months off to recuperate, but I'm thrown right back in the meat grinder after I got out of the hospital. But I knew it was going to be bad because I got word that the case had been closed. Hetty was sitting down when I walked in.

"How are you feeling Mr. Deeks? Have you made full recovery?" Hetty asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It takes time getting used to these new body parts." I say.

"Ironic, isn't it?" Hetty said.

"What?" I asked.

"Little by little you're becoming like the robot you hate so much." Hetty said.

 _This as good as any place to segue way into the case._ I think.

"Let's get down to business, shall we?" I asked angrily. "Why is the investigation of the Thirds over? That doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe it does." Hetty said.

"Bullcrap." I say.

I caught a glance in Hetty's eye that she didn't like my last statement.

"But we have to follow orders in this department." Hetty said.

"Tell me, was the decision forced?" I asked.

"I'll tell you what it is." Hetty said standing up. "It's an order that you're going to follow. The Third investigation is over because the murder was apprehended."

Hetty turned to look out her window, but I continue.

"Even after we've discovered that Thirds are robots that can actually conceive. Why stop here?" I asked.

"D'Anclaude's under full guard." Hetty said.

"Yeah, right." I said.

"He's over at Shenora General Government Hospital." Hetty said. "I can't accept the contradictory repot that you filed."

"But, Hetty." I said.

"Our job is to investigate and arrest technological criminals. Don't forget it. That's all I have to say for now." Hetty said.

I exit Hetty's office and make my way to an elevator. I'm disgusted. I'm beginning to doubt the reason why I transferred to Mars in the first place. On the elevator ride down I stop and think. I look at my right arm and I hear Hetty's voice in my head again.

 _Ironic, isn't it? Little by little, you're becoming like the robot you hate so much._

I hear the elevator ding when it reaches my stop, and I exit. I don't even stay at the station I leave and go run down some other leads. Or more importantly, I keep investigating the Third case.

M.A.M.

Across town Kensi and Dom are standing outside the building containing the mainframe for all the robots consciousness.

"That's where all my memory was backed up and stored. I'm saved for posterity. And if we're all murdered, you know-" Dom said.

"Will you give it a rest?" Kensi asked.

Kensi pulled off her visor and stared blankly at Dom. Dom stared back at Kensi a beat. Dom smiled, mumble something, and stuck his tongue out at Kensi. Kensi and Dom entered the building and made their way through its hallowed halls for a while until they found their door. Not they weren't expecting it, but the door was locked. Dom hooked his computer to it and was attempting to hack the password for the door. All that could be heard in the hallway is the beeping coming from Dom's computer.

"Ha! Bingo!" Dom said.

There was a heavy noise, followed by a beam of light that fell on both Kensi and Dom. It turn out to be a security bot.

"Hmm?" Dom said.

"Warning: Only authorized personnel are permitted within the memory bank." The bot said.

"Oh." Dom said glumly.

"Please vacate this area at once." The bot continued.

"We're lost. Which way is magnetic north?" Kensi asked making her way over to the bot.

"There is no department by that name. You must vacate with in ten seconds or-"

Before the bot could threat Kensi and Dom with death Kensi reached for the bots throat, or the equivalent of a throat, and sent a high amount of electricity into the bot, disabling it.

Dom was impressed by Kensi display, whistling at how effortlessly she dispatched the bot.

"Granger was quite a designer. He created the ultimate woman who could kick butt, and raise children." Dom said.

"He designed you too." Kensi said looking over her shoulder at Dom.

Dom chuckled. "Yeah, but I can't get pregnant."

They turned, leaving the bot in the middle of the hall, and entered the mainframe room. The room was huge: it was a circular room with a giant platform in the middle. Kensi and Dom stepped onto the platform, and stood in silence for a time; Kensi was scoping out the room, while Dom was looking for a way to access the mainframe.

"Hmm. That's it." Dom said as he knelt down in front of a grate two feet in front of him.

Kensi looked at the grate as Dom finished kneeling in front of it. Dom opened the grate, with a grunt. Dom knew what was coming next. He reached into the panel and pulled out a cord. The cord is used to transfer information between the mainframe and a personal computer.

"Here's goes. I hate that this is the easiest way." Dom said psyching himself out.

Dom lined the cable with the top of his sternum, and drove it into his chest. All throughout the room Dom's groaning was the only sound that was being made.

"Hey, will you hurry up?" Kensi said grudgingly.

"Hey, I'm doing this for you. It hurts like crazy, so shut up." Dom said indignantly as he found the right depth for the transfer. There were a few droplets of sweat on Dom's forehead.

Kensi changed her attitude real quickly. Kensi had relaxed her muscles, and she had an apologetic look on her face.

"I need to know about myself. Who am I and why?" Kensi said.

"Hmm. I'll look." Dom said.

There was a moment of silence as Dom was searching for Granger's file.

"Kensi?" Dom says.

"Huh." Kensi says.

"Help me out. My virtual monitor." Dom said almost robotic like.

 _That would because most of his consciousness is currently being used to run the search._ Kensi thought.

"Yeah?" Kensi said.

"Open it from my navigational system." Dom said.

Kensi looked for the buttons to access the monitor, and pressed it. Kensi gasped as the monitor came to life. The screen was blank for a moment.

"Good. I've located the still image file. Hold on. Just another second." Dom said.

The screen was blank until Dom accessed the picture. In the picture was of a group of men and women standing around a sign that read: Conception Generation X labs.

Kensi was silent for a while until she found who she was looking for, but what scared her was who was standing next to the person in question. Kensi gasped.

"That's my father, but why is he standing next to D'Anclaude?" Kensi asked. There was a moment of silence and then Kensi spoke again. "I don't believe it."

Dom started moaning in pain, falling over flat on his back, as the screen went blank.

"Dom!" Kensi exclaimed.

Dom was groaning in pain. "Darn it! I think someone's discovered me." Dom continued to groan in pain.

"You're logging off now!" Kensi exclaimed pulling the cord from Dom's body.

But it was too late. Somebody had indeed entered Dom's body through his search of the mainframe, attempting to override his consciousness and steal his body for their own purposes. Dom continued to moan in attempt to stop the person from stealing his body. When he stood up from the floor his hands went straight to Kensi throat, strangling her.

"Oh, God. Something's in me." Dom said groaning, and tears in his eyes. "Please help me."

Dom continued moaning in a feeble attempt to keep the intruder at bay, but his hands were still around Kensi throat. Kensi, folding her body in half, got the heels of her feet on Dom's thigh and abdomen and kicked him off of her. The bad thing was that Dom fell over the side of the platform. Kensi drew her gun as she was regaining her balance. The next thing that Kensi heard was cackling. Which was the signature sound made by D'Anclaude. It was he who had hijacked Dom's body.

"Little Kensi Blye went looking for knowledge and only found trouble. You can't stop the Third types from being killed my dear." D'Anclaude said.

Kensi realized her dilemma: it was a big room. Dom could attack her from any direction. Kensi scanned the room looking for any signs of Dom. Kensi didn't have to look long because she heard D'Anclaude, mixed with a little of Dom's voice, screaming as he dropped in on her, punching the spot where she was currently crouched at. The impact of the punched was enough to dislodge the panel. Kensi had her weapon pointed at D'Anclaude/Dom. When Dom looked up he saw that Kensi was point his gun at him.

"Shoot me I don't mind." D'Anclaude said. He started laughing again. "Pull the trigger. I dare you." D'Anclaude said once he had finished laughing.

D'Anclaude started laughing again, and Dom's body was going through the motions as if he was the one laugh, instead of D'Anclaude.

"So, you're not a human. Are you a Third type?" Kensi asked.

D'Anclaude stopped laughing and then spoke, but the voice was that of Dom.

"You won't find my name in the membership of that club for failures." Dom said.

"What are you saying?" Kensi asked in shocked surprise.

The voice to come from Dom's lips was D'Anclaude's again. "You make me wretch. Cheap imitations pretending to be human. There's no comparison to our superiority. I couldn't agree with humans more on one thing. All Thirds should be annihilated." D'Anclaude said.

All that could be heard throughout the room was D'Anclaude's laughter, for a split second you could hear a little of Dom's voice in the laughing.

"I'll kill you!" Kensi exclaimed rage coursing throughout her body.

Kensi turned her gun and fired five rounds into the computer port. She ran up to the port and dropped the butt of her gun on to the port severing the connecting between D'Anclaude and Dom. Next thing Kensi heard Dom's moans of pain, and then rushed over to catch him as he fell to the floor.

"Dom. No." Kensi said just above a whisper.

Dom was taking in deep breathes, smoke emanating from his body.

"That psycho's not the original." Dom said panting.

"Oh, my God." Kensi said.

Dom started groaning again.

"What's wrong?" Kensi asked.

"I'm going. I'll finally meet the real D'Anclaude. Get back!" Dom shouted as he shove Kensi away from him.

Just as Kensi hits the floor Dom's body bursts into synthetic flames. Kensi looked on in horror, her face twisted by its hold on her body. Kensi looks closely at Dom's body and she can see his skin began to disintegrate.

"K-Kensi, good-bye." Dom said his skin disintegrating from his face.

"Oh, no, Dom. No!" Kensi exclaimed.

Dom's body was engulfed by the flame, and Kensi screamed in horror. When the flame disappeared there was nothing left of Dom's body, just the scorch marks were left in the place where his body caught fire. There weren't even any ashes.


	7. Part 2

On the other side of town I'm driving back to the station after running down a lead. It wasn't worthwhile, and it led to another dead end. I need a break, or Hetty will have my head. That was until Kensi blew up my receiver.

"Hey, D-Deeks." Kensi said her picture appearing on the view screen and then disappearing. There's distortion on her end of the call.

"Huh?" I say.

I tap the view screen in an attempt to get a clearer signal.

"Deeks!" Kensi says.

"No." I say.

My windshield has about six or seven view screen, all from Kensi. There's an echo from a time delay between her sending all these messages, and my receiving said messages. I scan the windshield, unsure of which screen to look at.

"Deeks, I need your help. It's D'Anclaude again. Please. I need you. Something happened to Dominic. We need you. Deeks, don't-"

Then my windshield went blank. I brought up the G.P.S. and located Kensi position. Once I located her, I turned the car around and made a beeline for Kensi.

M.A.M.

Hetty's office-

Hetty was in the middle of an important meeting with people from Earths' government, and it was making her head spin. Hetty was on her couch, and her visitors were sitting in the chairs across from her.

"So one of my men got a little carried away. Hmm, well-" Hetty says.

"I'm Judicial Vice Minister Jessup, and I'm visiting as a representative of the Legal Affairs Bureau. I need an accurate picture of the M.P.D.'s operations." Jessup said.

"I'm just a bit confused." Hetty said, a hand resting on her chin. "Help me understand why an inspector from Earth's government has come here, hmm?"

"Oh, don't mind me Lieutenant. I'm simply an observer for Mr. Jessup. Think of me merely as a fly on the wall." Jessup's partner said, who was a woman.

Hetty groans. "Well, since you're observing, I'm sure you've noticed the robots here on Mars don't quite reflect a feminist society." Hetty said, first looking at the woman and then to Jessup.

"Very well. You understand us, uh, Miss, uh, Lange. Let's call it a day and have lunch." Jessup said.

M.A.M.

On a cliff overlooking the city is where we erect a cross to Dominic. It's not much of a cross, though. A was a couple a pieces metal tied together in the shape of a cross, but it gets the job done. I stare at the cross for a few second, and then I hang Dom's hat on it. I turn and walk over to Kensi, who was a few feet away from and still upset about Dom's death. As cops we see death all the time, but you never quite get used to, or over the death of a child or teenager. I make my way over to her slowly, not wanting to set her off and be attacked. I can see her hair blowing in the wind. I tap Kensi gently on her shoulder, I heard her gasp and saw her flinch. By the time my hand had returned to my side Kensi had looked up at me, and I could see that she had still been crying. I could still see the tears in her eyes, a few tears were sliding down her cheek, and her face was a bit splotchy from crying.

We stared at each other for a few brief seconds before my phone started beeping. I reached into my jacket and pulled my phone out. I stared at it for a few seconds, and then looked back at Kensi. Our gazes were locked on each other for a few moments, the phones beeping was the only thing that could be heard. Kensi had the look of a child who thought they were about to be abandoned, and then turned away from me, looking back at the ground in front of her. I clamp my hand around my phone, and then run to the cliff. I wind up like I'm pitch a baseball, and hurl my phone off the cliff. I can see the sun's rays reflecting off the phone, and I can hear the beeping fade into nothingness as the phone leaves my range of hearing.

"I'm sick of the whole darn system." I say.

I turn and make my way back to Kensi. I see that Kensi attention was already on me, I guess she had watched me throw the phone over the side. At Kensi side, I kneel down next to her, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"Kensi, didn't Dominic say that his memory was backup and stored somewhere?" I ask.

"The backup?" Kensi asked. It just dawned on her what I was getting at.

"That's right. If we can somehow access his data, we could still bring him back. Get it?" I ask, as I pick Kensi up, placing her on her feet. "His body's gone, but his mind is still alive."

Kensi gasps, and then runs over to Dom's cross. She didn't do anything at first just stared out over the city. "Funny, I didn't think I would miss him so much. Maybe his information will help us and avenge his death as well. Dominic said he was going to meet the real D'Anclaude. Maybe he was telling us we could do the same."

Halfway through her speech I see Kensi touch the cross with her hand, and run it across the crossbar to the edge. Her hand is still resting on the cross as I make my way over to her. I walk up behind Kensi, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder, as I rest my hand on her shoulder.

"Deeks?" Kensi says, removing her hand from the cross and resting it on my hand as she looked up at me.

"Shenora, right?" I ask.

"Will you come with me?" Kensi asks.

I give Kensi a slight smile, and then we leave the site. Kensi gives Dom one last good-bye, and then we leave. We make a stop to pick up some gear before making the assault on the hospital.

M.A.M.

The station house-

A few hours later Eric and Eddie were at a computer station in a darkened bullpen in a secluded part of the station. There was an alert that had been issued, and Eric was looking into it. The alert got Eddie's attention.

"What's up?" Eddie asked, leaning down to get a better look at the screen.

"The internal troops are active." Eric said.

"Are we at war?" Eddie asked.

"No. They're guarding." Eric said.

"What, the president?" Eddie asked.

"No, Shenora Hospital." Eric said.

"Shenora?" Eddie asked incredulously.

Eric accessed the live feed. At first they saw Shenora Hospital on a camera from about ten blocks away. Then Eric scrolled through all the cameras tied to the main system until he found one that had a bird's eye view of the entrance to the hospital. Eric zoomed the camera in as far as it could go. Out in front of the hospital there were about four tanks, and six cruisers.

"What the? Will you look at that arsenal? What the heck are they doing there?" Eddie exclaimed.

The audio functional picked up a new sound. "Hold on a minute. I'm picking something up." Eric said.

Eric changed the screen to a topographical map of that section of the city. They saw a beeping on the map heading towards the hospital.

"What is it? Ah, it's just a car." Eddie said. There was a moment of silence before either one of them spoke. "Huh?" Eddie said, and then he gasped when he saw the building labeled _Shenora_ glowed a bright red. On the live feed they saw that the car had collided with one of the tanks causing a massive explosion. Not only was the tank destroy, but some of the munitions that were in the area were set off, causing a massive fireball to rise up in front of the hospital.

"Holy crap." Eddie said dryly.

The troops looked in the direction that car had come from, and they could see the silhouette of two people. One that was tall, muscular, and you could see he blue eyes piercing the darkness. He had a grenade launcher resting on his right shoulder. The other was slightly shorter, slender female, and she was wearing a visor.

"They've lost it." Eddie said in object horror at the scene they had just watched. Eric was too stunned to comment.

M.A.M.

Shenora Hospital-

"Fire!" one of the troops shouted.

The closes tank fired off a round that exploded mere inches from Kensi and I, and all she did was smile. The driver watched the smoked clear to see Kensi, unharmed, charge the line of troops. Kensi shoulder checked the tank that fired at us, knocking it onto its side, and then jumped up onto the tank. Kensi sat there on the tank, not doing anything, as if the bullets being shot from the automatic rifles had no effect on her. She dodge a couple bullets, one even shatter her visor, but she wasn't even phased by it. When the bullet shattered her visor, Kensi cracked a smile, and drew back her fist. Kensi had grabbed an attachment to allow to punch through metal, but still gave her hand full mobility. When Kensi punched into the panel of the tank it exploded.

Kensi jumped off the tank with little effort, and her clothes weren't even burned by the explosion. She landed on a cruiser several yards away from the now destroyed tank, while the rest of the troops were distracted by the wreckage of the tank. Just as Kensi renewed her attack, the nearest trooper had turned and looked at her. She attacked it, and saw that it was a robot. The internal troops were a mix of robot and human troops. And the next one she attacked was a robot. Just as the rest of the troops had trained their guns on her and were ready to fire, I fired a round from my launcher and blow the head off one of the robot troops. I fire two, or three more rounds, wiping the rest of the rest of the troops.

We entered the hospital, and started running. Kensi must have already accessed the hospital mainframe, and found D'Anclaude's room. It was nowhere near the front door. Halfway through I run, I heard troops come up behind us. In mid run, I grunted as I threw a grenade that took out the squad of troops that were following us. Kensi stops short and tells me to blow out a section of the wall in front of us. After the smoke and dust clears, Kensi jumps through the hole and approaches the door that's protected by a security badge and a password.

"Here." Kensi says.

The doors slide open, and Kensi gasps in surprise to a man tied down to a bed, with his body hooked up to a machine, and an I.V. in his arm. I gasp, trying to catch my breath after running from the front doors, as I turn to look at our target.

"It's him. Finally, the real D'Anclaude. Or should I say Dr. Rene D'Anclaude?" I say, more a statement than a question.

I remain by the door, standing guard as Kensi approaches the bed. Kensi rest a hand on the side of the bed and stares at D'Anclaude's face. She stands there locked in a trance with the comatose man. That was until she heard a moan escape D'Anclaude's lips.

"You must be… Granger's daughter, the failure." D'Anclaude said.

Kensi glared angrily at D'Anclaude, and then climbed up on to his bed. Kensi started to unhook D'Anclaude from the machine, ripping the cords off of D'Anclaude's head and body, grunting as she pulled every cord. With every cord that was removed from his body, D'Anclaude moaned as if in pain.

"We gotta hurry. Come on." I say, still standing by the door. "Let's go while we still can."

Kensi steps off the bed with D'Anclaude's body draped over her shoulders, dropping to one knee. D'Anclaude weighs a considerable amount more than Kensi, so she had to get him situated before moving again. Kensi inhales sharply when she heard a squeaking sound in the distance.

"What's the matter?" I ask.

The squeaking continues some more.

"Deeks." Kensi said a look of sheer panic etch into her face.

I finally hear the squeaking noise too, and I start to sweep the room with my grenade launcher looking for the source of the squeaking.

"Something's coming." Kensi says.

"What is it?" I ask.

The words aren't even out of my mouth five seconds, and we hear glass shatter behind us. Through the hole in the glass we saw this gigantic cybernetic hand reach though, and clear out the rest of the glass. The next thing we see is a leg, followed by a very familiar sound: D'Anclaude's cackling. We staring in horror at the remodeling that was done to his body.

 _He was already a cyborg, but now he's something else._ I thought.

The only part of his body that resemble any closing to being normal was his head and torso, everything else was robotic.

 _He went from a normal cyborg to a hulking goliath._ I thought.

His hands and arms and four legs are about three times the size of his torso, and instead of feet he replaced them with wheels. D'Anclaude destroyed the wall so his whole body could enter the room. There are parts of his body that are missing skin: two spots on his forehead in the center and to the right of center. Parts of the right side of his face is missing, the right eye has no lids.

 _There are a lot of spots where the skin wasn't grafted on._ I thought.

"Not again." I say.

"D'Anclaude. There's no way." Kensi says.

D'Anclaude continues cackling. "Hey, let's rumba."

D'Anclaude points one of his hands at us, and in the palm is a huge gun. We both get out of the line of fire, Kensi to the right and I make my way to the left. Kensi makes her way behind D'Anclaude while Dr. D'Anclaude is still hanging unconscious on her shoulders. There's a side exit that Kensi is making her way towards. D'Anclaude was turning to face Kensi, turning his back to me.

"Over here!" I shout, firing a grenade into D'Anclaude's back.

Without turning around D'Anclaude points his arm in my direction and fires at me. As I'm diving out of the way I lose my grenade launcher, and I scramble my way over to the door.

Kensi looks back to see if was following her. "This way! Hurry!"

Kensi starts running just as I was diving out of the room, hitting the wall. It takes me a few moments to get back to my feet, but I get up fast enough. Just as I get back to my feet and take off running I cover my ears, covering them just as the grenade that I tossed before I dove out of the room exploded. Smoke and dust can be seen in the hallway, or least I think it can be seen. Once I started running I didn't bother to look behind me.

"Wait! Don't run off! I want to play with you!" D'Anclaude exclaims, chuckling.

We're not even twenty yards down the hall from Dr. D'Anclaude's room before D'Anclaude comes barreling down the hall after us. I look over my shoulder in time to see a grinder of some sorts extend from D'Anclaude's pelvic region, and become active. I hear D'Anclaude start cackling some more.

"Come on. Wait." D'Anclaude says, which was followed by more cackling.

Kensi and Dr. D'Anclaude are having a conversation, which I did not catch because I was too busy concentrating on the task in front of me.

"There's no way that darn gargoyle's a Third type." Kensi says.

"Hmm? My, looks who talk? Don't tell me you have no clue who your brother was. You have more in common with that prototype gargoyle than you might realize. Did you truly believe you were a Third?" Dr. D'Anclaude asked.

"Liar." Kensi said.

"You could always ask Granger, but he's tucked away safely in a dome on Dunwich Hill." Dr. D'Anclaude said, with a devious look on his face.

I look over my shoulder and saw that we lost D'Anclaude, but when I turn around I see Kensi was stopping. She too was panting like me.

 _Ah crap! Not again!_ I think.

"Kensi. Don't stop." I say.

"No!" Kensi says.

"Oh, no. I can always tell when you're going to do something crazy." I say.

Kensi squares up, preparing to charge D'Anclaude when she gets an opening. D'Anclaude comes barreling around the corner and screeches to a halt when he's that we've stopped. I see smoke coming off of all four of D'Anclaude's wheels. There was a moment of silence before either of them spoke.

 _Just like the O.K. corral._ I think.

"Hi, kids. Oh, does she want a showdown? We'll both go down fighting. That make everyone happy, 'cause you know, nobody on Mars wants us here." D'Anclaude says, and then starts cackling.

Kensi is gritting her teeth during his speech, and then loses it. "Wrong! You're the one who's through."

I can see electricity emanating from Kensi hand, and she glows white for a split second before charging D'Anclaude.

"No!" I exclaim.

I can hear Kensi grunting as she is running towards D'Anclaude. Kensi wasn't ten feet from both me and Dr. D'Anclaude when she leaps into the air, soaring towards D'Anclaude. I can hear the wheels groan as D'Anclaude backs away to put and hand between him and Kensi, which was useless. I can still hear D'Anclaude cackling until I hear Kensi shouting drowns it out. Kensi had punched her left fist into D'Anclaude's body causing a small explosion that I did not blow me off my feet, but I did have to cover my face because of the flying tiny parts that flew off of D'Anclaude's body.

"NO!" I shouted.

I couldn't see anything, but Kensi' arm was buried in D'Anclaude's chest up to her elbow and a scream was coming from D'Anclaude. It wasn't a normal scream, I could hear the circuits being fried. I had no idea what Kensi was trying to do, but I couldn't see her body moving at all. Kensi was trying to access D'Anclaude's memory core, and stop him from transferring his consciousness into another body. The heat of the forced entry was so extreme that it not only melted the shirt and sleeve off of Kensi body, but it also melted some of skin off too. Then there was a huge explosion when D'Anclaude's body was destroyed, allowing Kensi to penetrate his consciousness.

"Human suffering is such a unique privilege, isn't?" D'Anclaude asks.

Kensi' had one job, and it was made simpler when she found out the truth about D'Anclaude.

"He's pure data! Cease function!" Kensi said erasing the program.

Kensi could hear D'Anclaude screaming as his consciousness was bring destroyed. It took Kensi a few moments to come back to her senses, but when she did Kensi realized that we were in a car driving for a safe place that was as far away from Shenora Hospital as possible.


	8. Worlds Collide

As I'm walking to the graveyard to meet Eddie I hear a snippet of a news clip. The video footage is the aftermath of mine and Kensi assault on the hospital only mere hours ago. I see people standing around: civilians, police officers, news reporters and their camera men. I hear the man covering the story begin speaking.

" _Next in the news: the Martian Police Department is investigating the terrorist attack at Shenora General Government Hospital, which occurred during an anti-robot demonstration. The police are asking for our viewers' help in locating these two suspects: Martin Deeks and Kensi Blye. The M.P.D. confirms there is a definite connection. If you have any information, please notify the police._ " When they mention mine and Kensi name the show a photograph of our face with our names on the bottom of the photo.

About the time the anchor man had finished the segment Eddie was walking into the graveyard to meet me. He was probably nervous because he was aiding and abetting known fugitives. Or it could be the fact that there was a protest recently, and the burnt remains of their robotic victims were left in the position when they died. The blood had dried on the stakes that were driven into the victim's bodies, the wires were disconnected and weren't charged with electricity. One of the bodies had visible circuitry, but the rest had been destroyed in the fire.

"Yuck." Eddie said.

Eddie walked up to a tombstone that had red paint on it in a shape of a circle. In the middle of the circle was a robotic head that still had flesh on it that hadn't been burned completely off. On the forehead was a pentagram and a candle that was half burnt. Eddie, out of sort of respect for the dead, tried wiping some of the wax off of the skull. Eddie heard some whistling, and turned to find me standing by the railing near the outskirts of the graveyard.

"Let me pick out our next meeting place, okay? Tables with umbrellas. If that makes you too sick, I know a vending machine and a clean bench." Eddie says when he approaches me.

"I guess this is the worst place." I say.

"The worst place? Only is I was in your shoes." Eddie says.

"Will you cut the crap? Did you find anything?" I ask.

"Hmm, yeah. Your Dunwich Hill exists, but not on any map." he says, as he pulling out a receiver that has the G.P.S. coordinates to Dunwich Hill. "I found a good highway going smack blank into a mountain, but no Granger address box inviting any mail from a rogue cop."

"No satellite topographicals?" I ask as reach out to turn the receiver towards me.

"Come on. Like I really have a couple of moons to power this thing." Eddie says. I shut the receiver down, and put it in my jacket. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"A loss on duty." I say blankly.

"Yeah, the dearly departed." He says nervously as I turn and walk away. Eddie turns and looks off into the distance. Before I get far I hear Eddie speak again. "Hey, Deeks! Can you tell those guys – the Martians—Tell 'em Eddie says, "What's up?"

"Sure." I say cracking a smile.

M.A.M

We wait for nightfall to leave the city, that way we were less likely to be spotted as we were leaving. On highway leading to the complex we had talked for a while, but I noticed that Kensi had become eerily quiet the last quarter, to half a mile. We were listening to country music, probably a McCanon song, as we enter the canyon that leads the instillation.

"So, what's wrong?" I ask.

Silence.

"Well, are you gonna tell me?" I asked.

More silence.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"No, I'm not. My C.P.U.'s all messed up." Kensi said, _probably got damaged in that last fight with D'Anclaude._ I think. "They say the mind is the first thing to go. Humans say."

"Come on, Kensi. Machines don't go senile." I say, laughing internally to myself.

"They say life is pretty short. It's like an expiration date, you know?" she says.

There was more silence, and I could hear the country lyrics to the country song.

"Hey, how come…" Kensi begins but stops short of finishing the question.

"What?" I ask.

"What's the reason you're doing all of this for me, huh?" she asks. There's a moment of silence before she begins again. "So tell me, how come you're still with me and driving me all the way out here anyway? I mean why change from a good cop to a criminal?"

 _I guess there are two answers to that question._ I think. _The first is that I want to see how this whole debacle started. Why create the Thirds at all when the Seconds were just fine. The second answer is because… well._ I start to feel that same sensation in my chest as when I got close to Jess Traynor.

"Hmm." I say. Kensi has been working by herself along time that she isn't used to having a partner that is willing to follow her everywhere, even at the expense of their own job.

"How come…" Kensi begins.

"Stop it! You're asking stupid questions like some little kid. Why? How come? There's no answer for these questions." I say.

We sit in silence for a moment. That was until I hear Kensi gasps, and I look up to see that we are fast approach a bend in the road. I swerve to keep us from hitting the wall, and when I bring the jeep to a screeching halt, I turn the music down. We look to where the highway ends and we see the instillation where Doctor Granger resides.

"That's it, isn't it?" Kensi asks.

"Coordinates." I say. I see that screen light up. Then a message appears on the screen: _Congratulations! You are at the Virgin area Now!_

" _Virgin_? Yeah, maybe if you just landed here." I say.

Kensi jumps behind me to the ground ready to continue the search. I realize that there isn't a place to park the jeep in case we were followed.

"Hey, it wastes fuel to keep the motor running." I say.

Kensi turns back to me, and gives me a hard look, and then turns away. I look around and see there isn't a place to park the jeep nearby to hide it, so I drive it to up to the door, and shut the engine off. We enter the facility, and look for a way further into the it. I saw a dome as we were approaching the complex, and the main uses for domes are usually for greenhouses. We make our way through the halls in silence, I scan the halls periodically, just make sure we don't get ambushed by a security unit, either human or machine. We open a random door, and I take a quick peek, and then enter. As soon I as get a good shooting stance, I raise my gun in case there are any hostiles, but there weren't any. All that was in the room was mechanized suit of armor that was incomplete. _Probably a prototype._ I think.

The next elevator we exit deposits us into the greenhouse I was expecting, except it was more of a habitat than a greenhouse. I could hear birds chirping, I even thought I could hear the low hum of insects. We exit the elevator back to back in case we jumped by the security squad we were expecting earlier, but after I clear the elevator nothing tries to attack us. So we make our way across the habitat.

"Yo! Anybody here?" I say. We walk for a little while. "We're looking for a guy called Granger! Is anyone here? You got visitors!"

Kensi got distracted by something, and wasn't looking behind here. Her gun hand touches a branch, and it moved. Kensi turned to look at the thing, and it had water dumped on her.

"Oh." Kensi said.

"What happened?" I asked.

We both saw a plant like creature that had dumped the water on Kensi from watering can, and it was about seven to seven and a half feet tall looming over her.

"All right, take it easy. Move away from it nice and slow." I say as I pointed my gun at creature.

"Don't shoot. It's only a robot." Kensi says.

"Yeah, a big one." I say, lowering gun.

"It somehow just like me. I think it's a bioroid type." she says.

"What is that? Is it some kind of prototype?" I ask.

"May I help you?" A very familiar voice asks.

"Huh?" Kensi says.

We stare in horror at the machine that is staring at us. Kensi gasps upon recognizing the unit, and grunted when she train her gun on it. It was D'Anclaude. Same blonde hair and haircut, same blond eyebrows. Even the same blue eyes.

"Talk about your family trees." I say.

"It's another D'Anclaude. That same face and voice." Kensi says.

"I heard someone calling for Dr. Granger." D'Anclaude said.

Kensi just grunted at the machine.

"I did." I say.

D'Anclaude looks at Kensi, then back to me. "Appointment?" Kensi still had her gun trained on him. "No, I suppose not. Would you follow me, please?" D'Anclaude said, and then turn to lead us out of the habitat. D'Anclaude leads us to an elevator, and that takes us deeper into the facility.

"Dr. Granger, visitors. A Mr.-" D'Anclaude says, as we step off the elevator.

"Deeks."

A man in his late fifties, early sixties with a partial horseshoe haircut, looks up from the computer he was working at.

"Papa?" Kensi says.

"Ah, the new man from Conception." Granger says, mistaking me for somebody else. "It's been so many years, and you even brought one of the models along. Mr. Deeks." he says, walks over to shake my hand.

"Uh, but I'm not-" I begin to say, nervously.

"Papa?" Kensi says cutting us off.

Both Granger and I look at Kensi. Kensi stares up at Granger with a look of joy in seeing her adoptive father again. It was a moment before Granger spoke again.

"Oh, but she's only a Third. She's so inferior. The poor little thing. But you needn't be so kind. It's outdated." Granger says. The look on Kensi face is one of hurt, wounded actually. The man she looked up to as her father her entire life, and he called her inferior. She is definitely hurting after that comment. Granger rest his hand on Kensi head, as if she was some kind of object, not a living construct that has feelings and emotions, one's that have just been seriously damaged.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Here take a look at this." Granger points to a glass tank that hold a robot being formed. "A Fourth type that Conception can be proud of. There's no longer any need to copy humans or plants anymore."

The machine being created in the tank is the same type of robot that we just encountered in the habitat. I watch as Dr. Granger approaches the tank, and place his hands on the tank. I get the feeling that the doctor has a Victor Frankenstein complex. Both Kensi and I stare at the tank, I stare in shocked awe at the life being created, while Kensi is has a look of terrified horror by the life being form. Kensi stares at the tank, and begins to wonder if that was how she had entered this world.

"They live. They're alives. Oh, no, we should call them "phobians." What? Yes, a new life, my Marfortean, but you won't. You'll just be calling them anything you want when you market them. The stupid company you work for is just going to call them "the Fourths," aren't they? They're alives. A grand conception. Then it all goes wrong." Granger says, turning back to us with a hand raised a look mania in his eyes.

After Granger finished speaking, he starts to have a minor melt down, and he begins grunting as he gently, slams his fist against the cabinet next to him. He starts babbling on about something, but I don't catch it because D'Anclaude steps in. Kensi and I are staring at Granger's melt down: Kensi shocked that the man, who she calls father, his mind has deteriorated so badly. I'm just staring at the man in disgust that he has allowed society to have fallen so far.

"The doctor's mind was unfortunately altered. Reduplication of his thought is very difficult. Please be patient." D'Anclaude says.

"His memory, was it erased?" Kensi asked.

"Who are you?" I asked D'Anclaude.

"I am Wilber D'Anclaude, and Dr. Granger's aide." D'Anclaude said.

"Oh, well, yeah, he might look to you like he's one of those "assassinroid." But I fixed up his crazy head, just as you can see." Granger said.

"Indeed he did. The violent tendencies are gone due to the upgrade." D'Anclaude says, boasting about Granger's work.

"What's the reason?" I ask.

"Pardon?" D'Anclaude asks.

"Dr. Granger, his mind. Just what's wrong with it?" I ask.

"Forget it, Deeks." Kensi says. I turn to look at Kensi, and I see a look of defeat written on her face. "That's enough." Kensi turns, and leaves the lab.

I follow Kensi out of the lab, back into the habitat. She finds a tree off in the corner, and she pulls the trench coat, that I leant her, tight around her body. While siting a rock, I build a small fire between the two of us, in hopes of warming her up, but to no avail.

"Are you still cold?" I ask, after the fire had been going for a ten minutes.

"Yes, it's affecting my nervous system." Kensi says, I can see the misery in way her body language, and in her eyes.

"I'm sorry I lost my temper. I was… just hoping the doctor would be able to help you somehow." I say.

"Never count on hope. You'll lose. When wishes are gone, hope gives nothing. And then you hope that your father might know, and hopes are really fragile. They get all ruined every time you believe that somebody else is gonna help your hopes come true." Kensi says, I could see the tears brimming in her eyes. I watched as she turned away to cry tears of defeat.

 _Kensi is a machine built to be human. She doesn't know the first thing about human emotions. She trusts me, and I'm falling for this woman. I guess it's time to show her what it means to be human._ I think.

I get up from my rock, and walk over to Kensi. I kneel down as I gently tap her on the shoulder. Kensi didn't even hesitate to hide the tears that she is crying. "A hope is a feeling. Maybe you'll be okay." I say.

To Kensi everlasting credit, she doesn't use the logical portion of her brain. "If I was a Second, then I wouldn't even be able to think of all this stupide crap." Kensi says, and then turns away from me. "But I'm programmed to be a human, and I don't even know what that means." When Kensi speaks her next sentence, it's childlike and she's practically shouting. She also has a smile plastered on her face. "Hope is a human feeling isn't it, Deeks? Come on. Tell me more."

"Hey, I know one." I say trying to get Kensi to dial the excitement back a few notches. "He's a human, and he's less real than all of the things you're talking about. You want to know what he said. _Don't give up._ "

I see the fear in Kensi' eyes, what she's afraid of I'm not sure. The next thing Kensi does, after she has summon as much courage that she could, was lean into me and give me a quick kiss on the lips. After kissing me Kensi turns away from, as if she was ashamed of kissing me. "Oh, Deeks." Kensi says.

I place both of my hands on either side of Kensi head, and turn her head so we are face to face. At first her eyes are closed, but when she opens then again I make brief eye contact, and then lean in for a deep, and passionate kiss. After we break the kiss, we strip down to our undergarments.

"Are you sure?" Kensi asks.

"Kensi, I think it's the only thing I've been sure since I got here. How about you?" I ask. Kensi looks up at me tears in her eyes, and smiles at me. I never real thought about Kensi love life since I've been partnered with her, she is very attractive, that's for certain, but she never actively pursued anybody. Not that I was aware of. "Well, at least something is normal here on Mars."

I pull Kensi into my body, sharing my warmth, as we sink to our knees. "But I'm not normal. I'm a robot." Kensi says.

"I'm half robot too, but I know a true heart when I've met one." I say.

We lose the last bit of our clothing, and make love to each other. Between the kissing we say.

"I love you, Martin Deeks."

"I love you too, Kensi Blye."


	9. Battle for Survival

Elsewhere on the planet there was a broadcast being beamed down by one of the planets satellites.

" _We interrupt this broadcast for the following announcement._ " The first news broadcaster said.

" _Good evening: We've just received word that, as of eleven p.m., U.T.N. time, the economic agreement has been signed at last. Mars and Earth have signed the treaty. Officials from both powers are quoted as saying: "This the first step toward one world, one nation._ " The second news broadcaster said.

Back in the habitat, the sun is beginning to rise and I can feel its rays warming my naked body. Sometime during the night I grabbed my trench coat and used it as a blanket to cover us. As I'm beginning to wake up I hear footsteps approaching us. I open my eyes, and turn to see who it was, it was D'Anclaude.

"Follow me there's something I'd like to show you." D'Anclaude said.

D'Anclaude head backs to the elevator and waits for us to get dressed. As we're approaching the elevator it opens and the three of us get on. We take it back down to the lab we were in yesterday. I see D'Anclaude bring up one of those holding tanks we saw yesterday. Kensi is still trying to wake up, or she's still feels the sting from yesterday.

"Where's the doc?" I ask.

"This morning, he's with his alives. He's concentrating on further hybridization. He intends to continue and complete the initial terra-forming plans." D'Anclaude says.

"But, that's impossible." I say.

"Yes, rational thought would agree." D'Anclaude said.

Kensi looked up as the bubbles in the tank were clearing. I stare in shock at the lifeform that is in the tank, while Kensi lets out a gasp when she sees it. In the tank is another robot that looks exactly like Kensi.

"Don't worry." D'Anclaude says. "The unborn sister poses no threat. Dr. Granger gave up weapons production. He left this new model unfinished. But why? A difference of opinion with his partner Professor D'Anclaude."

I feel a tugging at me jacket sleeve. "I—that's enough. Let's go." Kensi says, not wanting to hear the rest of D'Anclaude's story.

"Is there something else?" I ask, wanting to get to the point of the conversation.

"I brought you here because I felt you had previous knowledge of the Third's being created as _assassinroids_." D'Anclaude said, said facing the tank, but turned back to face us.

"Nice upgrade. Go on." I says cautiously.

"It's the unfinished work. Professor D'Anclaude began work on the female "assassinroid," which would in some way complement the multitude of my brothers. Along with myself and Kensi, we were the pinnacle of robotic creation. Although our strength and abilities far surpassed humans, it was quite simple to assimilate ourselves into their society. Then Dr. Granger used us as a base of the synthetic organisms in developing the Thirds, programming creativity and life instead of the directive to destroy. Unfortunately, all the prototypes had and imperfection. There were many instabilities within the logic boards of the Third C.P.U. Of course, Dr. Granger's present state of mind prevented him from ever quite perfecting the female models." D'Anclaude said.

"I'm nothing. He couldn't even finish. I'm useless. He doesn't even care!" Kensi exclaimed, running from the lab.

"No, wait!" I call after Kensi.

 _Useless my butt. I didn't come out here for this._ I think. I follow Kensi out of the lab, giving her some time. There's nowhere to go, except the habitat, so I take my time and allow Kensi a moment of privacy. D'Anclaude is following me. I find Kensi sitting under a tree, while staring at her reflection in the river that was in the habitat. _Never notice the river earlier._ I thought. Kensi contemplates her viability in light of this new information that she has received. She blinks her eyes a few times while she continues to stare at her reflection.

While Kensi is gathering her thoughts I continue our conversation from earlier. "I don't understand. Why even create a Third type? I mean the Seconds were good enough, even on Earth." I say.

"Perhaps being from Earth, you do not have the knowledge of the difficulties there are with low Martian birthrates." D'Anclaude says.

"No. I've heard—what's it mean?" I ask.

"Any colony desiring independence requires a populace. Otherwise, they can't develop a new identity. And Mars will continue to be weak as long as it remains dependent upon the Earth for its immigration." D'Anclaude said. At first he was staring off into the distance when he first gave his speech, but by the time he finished he was staring right at me.

"Well, what about Conception? There's got to be more behind it than just the money that's involved, right?" I ask.

"Indeed. Manufactures of Thirds, which can give birth, gain strength through numbers. The more people they represent, the stronger their position grows." D'Anclaude says.

"Logical. But then the assassinations make no sense." I say, as if I had D'Anclaude in a jam.

"They do. If you're the government and hope to sign a treaty with the Earth Federation." Kensi says joining the conversation.

Kensi words stop me in my tracks. Back in St. Lowell the citizens are gather on the streets of the city to welcome the head of the Earth Federation, as she makes a _victory lap_ on through the city. "Nah, they couldn't. Do you really think they've done it?" I ask.

"Mars has no other recourse. The Earth Federation is now strongly feminist. A robot that can conceive contradicts the basis of the Terran party's position of basic humanity. For Mars to agree, Mars must eliminate the Thirds. They are now an obstruction." D'Anclaude says. Kensi stands to her feet as D'Anclaude finishes speaking, looking off into the distance.

"Is that what you think, that I'm just old Martin garbage to be thrown out? You're wrong, I'm going to stay alive for as long as I can." Kensi says sternly, as she turns to stare at D'Anclaude.

"Exactly. Your programming for self-preservation is exactly equal to ours for eliminating your kind." D'Anclaude said. He turned from looking at me, to looking at Kensi when he spoke again. "But I am now refined. Unlike my brothers, I respect your wish for continued life."

Suddenly there's a beeping noise. It was emanating from the receiver I commandeered from Eddie.

"Hey, Eddie." I say, as I turn the receiver on.

" _He's on suspension._ " Hetty says.

"Huh?" I ask.

" _For aiding a fugitive: section ten._ " Hetty continues.

"No, ma'am, not if I force him into it." I say, defending Eddie's involvement in our disappearance.

" _Perhaps he'll be pardon. I'll submit it._ " Hetty says. " _This Dunwich Hill dome has become a military attack point._ " Kensi and I are on edge after Hetty mentions that we're about to be attacked in the very near future. " _The government has made its own connections between you two and the terrorist attack at Shenora. This is an official notice. You're a threat to the government. M.P.D. officially denounces all of your activities._ "

"So Eddie freakin' squealed." I say more of a statement, than an accusation.

" _He didn't. How could an officer I put on suspension say anything at all?_ " Hetty asks. Off screen Eddie was making motions with his hands of choking himself, while sticking out a tongue and closing one eye.

"Thanks a lot." Kensi says, looking into the receiver over my shoulder.

" _I'm sorry._ " Hetty says.

Kensi was taken back Hetty's statement, more appropriately she was disgusted by her statement. "Sorries aren't good enough. So what are we gonna do now?" Kensi asks.

" _Survival. It's basic training._ " Hetty says, cutting Kensi off. " _Hetty, and friends… signing off._ " Behind Hetty I saw Eric, a new woman who goes by the name Nell, Eddie, and the guy who gave the briefing at the outset of the case.

"Great." Kensi says.

I shut the receiver down. "You're in charge. What now?" I ask.

"We gotta get my father out." Kensi says.

Elsewhere on the planet, a large contingent of the military is making its way to Dunwich Hill dome. On the television sets back in St. Lowell, a male announcer is giving this speech. " _Good morning, and this morning is our day of new hope. Our planet, often beleaguered with nightmarish social confusion, has been finally pieced together again with the help of our true home world. Federation chairwoman Everhart has taken two planets and given us one world, one nation. Today we are reborn as a unified humanity._ "

While the speech is being given, they switch between the military unit that is moving on our position, scenes of Everhart's procession last night, and they even show the reactions of the crowd, which is mostly of people celebrating. Back at Dunwich Hill dome, our attempts to get Dr. Granger to leave are going poorly.

"Listen to me. They're going to wipe this place off the map." I say urgently to Dr. Granger.

"My alives are not yet ready to leave." Granger says. A few feet away from us D'Anclaude is watching the scene as if it isn't important, while Kensi is keeping quiet.

"They're going to be your tinder logs in a few seconds." I shot back.

"Papa!" Kensi says, resting a hand on Granger's shoulder.

"Wilbur, get the important work into the old storage back up system." Granger says.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be safe. It's you I-" Kensi began.

Halfway through her sentence Kensi hand had bumped into a picture frame, knocking it over. We both look at the picture in the frame, but it hits Kensi a little bit harder: it was that same picture I saw in my room of both Kensi and Dr. Granger outside by a fence. "Maybe you are a nut, but I'm your daughter and you know it." Kensi accuses Granger, who had the decency to look ashamed of his actions for the past twenty-four hours. "This a police order. Evacuate." Kensi says, point her gun at Granger's forehead.

"You're still a little fireball, aren't ya, my Kensi?" Granger says.

Kensi gasps at Granger's moment of mental clarity, while I'm somewhat suspicious of this change, given my relationship I had with my father. Kensi lowers her gun, and holsters it. "Papa!" she exclaims and launches herself into Granger's open arms. The share a look, before Granger ever so gently, touches the base of Kensi neck with a taser.

"Ah!" Kensi exclaims.

"Kensi!" I exclaim.

"She' all right. You must think I'm a great coward, Mr. Deeks, but if the alives and myself are to die, I must at least save one thing." Dr. Granger says. I watch the trench coat fall off of Kensi lifeless body, her hand still around Granger's neck. "Poor child." I watch in awe as Granger cradles Kensi body, and speak his next lines. "Daddy will fix it. Daddy will fix his little girl."

I watch as Granger put Kensi in a tank, and brings up a new program that I have never seen before. I watch as he slaves away at the computer for about fifteen, twenty minutes. When he finishes I see him lean back in his chair and let out a breath. "There. It's finished, Kensi. Now you are real." Granger says.

He opens the tank, and I cover Kensi in the trench coat before pulling her out. When I turn from the tank D'Anclaude motions for me to follow him, and we run from the room. He takes us through a few winding corridors that dumps us into a garage. In the garage was a flatbed truck that already had a load on it. "A parting gift, from Dr. Granger." D'Anclaude says.

I nod to D'Anclaude, and run over to the passenger side, open the door and strap Kensi in. I shut the door, run around and jump in behind the wheel, and get strapped in. By the time I fire up the truck the garage door was opening. I throw the truck in gear and gun the engine. We must be running out of time before the military launches its initial strike on the facility.

Just as we're entering the canyon Kensi starts to wake up. On the other side of the canyon one of the many tanks that is coming to destroy Dunwich Hill dome fires a missile. Back in St. Lowell, a news reporter is speaking live. " _Last night's slogan of "one world, one nation" has blossomed into a new Martian thought towards "two worlds, one humanity."_

As the missile is fast approaching Dunwich Hill, both D'Anclaude and Granger are in the habitat watching the alives. From a distance we can see the aftermath of the missile strike. Inside the facility, alarms are blaring, the roof is collapsing, and fire is already setting the habitat a blaze. Granger doesn't even try to run as the world around him is collapsing. He doesn't even see the section of the roof that is about to fall on top of both him and D'Anclaude.

About a quarter-mile from the facility we get out and say a silent good-bye to the doctor and D'Anclaude. "Hey, listen. I think that Eddie knows a guy who can hide us as cargo on an Earth shuttle. I still got a friend who can get you a new I.D." I say.

"I don't want that. I'm going back, back to St. Lowell." Kensi says, her back to me.

We hear the blades of an approaching helicopters, looking for possible survivors. One trains it's camera on us, and identifies us, but Kensi took it down with a single bullet from her gun.

"I don't wanna see you die." I say, as the wreckage of the helicopter falls to the ground.

"You won't have to. We'll say good-bye here." Kensi says with a smile as she turns to face me. "I thinks it's a great idea, don't you? It's a pretty place if you just ignore the smell from all the bombs."

Kensi telling me to part ways her and leave her behind is making my anger start to rise until it reaches critical mass, and explodes. "Kensi you know I hate when talk like crap that way!" I yell at her.

I can hear Kensi gasp, and I can see it in her eyes that she's about to cry, whether because I yelled at her, because of her cavalier attitude about life, or both, I'm not sure. "So what?" Kensi asks.

I grit my teeth, but I try to calm my anger. "The whole planet hates your kind without any reason at all. Just like I did." I said.

"I know they do. But if," Kensi begins, but stops midsentence, sniffling. "There's someone else—Oh, Deeks, I love you so very much."

I know that Kensi loves me, she told me last night, but to hear the pain in her voice stopped the fury cold. Kensi is crying by the time I approach her, and pull her into me for a hug. "Hey, go wherever you want, but you're never gonna lose me now." I say.

The news feed is showing the same footage of Chairwoman Everhart's procession from last night, and a cheering crowd, but after a while the cameras switch to the government forces out on the plains as they gear up to kill us. Every screen in St. Lowell is about to air our battle. Out on the plains, we come out of a service tunnel that takes near the troops. I pull the truck to a stop and Kensi jumps out to survey the troop numbers. The wind is blowing from the west as I get out and pull the tarp off whatever was beneath it. It was that same suit we saw in the labs yesterday, except this one is fully-operational. There's a canyon between us and the government forces.

"Two thousand." Kensi said.

I get in the suit and activate it. A few seconds later a little screen is thrust in front of my right eye and it give me a tactical read of the troop numbers and position, Kensi location, and the technical read out of the suit. I see Kensi is at the bottom of a small hill, and I slide down it stopping next to her. We just stood there staring at the opposition, just waiting. Then Kensi says. "Look what dad gave me."

"What?" I asks.

Kensi pulls of the trench coat to reveal that Doctor Granger gave Kensi two laser cannons that attached to her shoulder blades, and wings that are attached to the base of the cannons. The outfit was a bit of a step up from her usual get up. Every part of her body is covered, the only concession is that it reveals a lot of cleavage. _Not that I'm complaining._ I think. "It's a little too angelic for my taste. But now I've got some real power." she says.

"We'll need it." I say.

In the sky, I see a flash of light, I realize that it was the sun reflecting off the surface of an incoming missile.

"Let's show 'em." Kensi says, as we both jump off the ledge, as the missile explodes. I jump down to the next ledge, whereas Kensi takes to the sky and begins the attack. She charges up her lasers, and wipes out a tank on the ground. Fires both lasers, making two sweeps, at a group of helicopters destroying three of the four units. Kensi lands on the ground, and stares down the approaching army. Kensi is on every screen, whether private or public, back in St. Lowell. Back on the battlefield, I fire off a few rockets taking down a couple of tanks.

A round explodes just a mere centimeter from me, and I return the favor. Back in the city, there are people watching our battle for survival on the screens. Most of them are robots, their human counterparts not interested in our fight, as if it doesn't even affect them. On other screens they show the chairwoman again, with the words " _One world, one nation_ " scrolling across the screen. Back on the field, Kensi charging the government forces in a hail of bullets, mortars and rockets, as her eyes change colors rapidly from blue to red, from red to green, and from green to yellow. In her mind's eye, she can see all the murder victims that drove us to this point. She was calculating the best plan of action to wipe them all out. When a rockets explode in front of Kensi, she used the black smoke as cover to take to the sky again.

Coming in from behind Kensi was a pair of helicopters. She dodged a volley of bullets, and two rockets. Kensi charged the nearest unit, jamming her fist into the helicopter's camera. Kensi activated a laser in her forearm, and causing the helicopter to explode. Kensi pulled away as the vehicle exploded. I see the explosion, but I don't know Kensi fate, so I zoom in on the explosion and I Kensi fly out of the smoke. I feel the ground shake all around me as mortar goes off next to me. I activate the thrusters, and get into the thick of things. I take out a troop, and then fire off a few rounds into the heart of the government forces. Kensi dodges a volley of bullets and takes out two tanks. She dodges two rockets be fire at her, which she dodges, and destroys that tank. Off in the distance a tank that was moving took a pot shot, and blew off one of Kensi' wings. I watch as Kensi falls back to the ground. In that moment of distraction, one of the troops destroys the left arm of my suit.

Kensi comes to as a tank is about to crush her under its weight. Kensi fire her laser and destroys the tank, and then flips out of the way of the wreckage. Kensi didn't move fast enough, and takes few round to the chest before returning fire. I open a compartment on the suit, and pull out a gun, and return fire. Kensi fires her lasers into the troops as she runs for cover, in the process of running she takes a few rounds that throws off her aim, but they didn't harm her. Kensi reacquires her targets, and returns fire.

The battle last until sundown, but back in St. Lowell, it's as if our battle isn't even going on. Some citizens are still watching the battle, while others are distracted by whatever the news is broadcasting, as if it's trying to distract the citizens from it. They're going on about their lives, as if this battle has no effect on them. As sunsets on the battlefield, and the battle has reached its conclusion, the news airs the chairwoman and the mayor of St. Lowell shaking hands, as if to say that the sun is setting on the city's nightmarish past, and a new era begins when the sun rises in the morning.

Sometime after dark, I found Kensi laying on the ground resting. I got out of my suit, picked Kensi up cradling her in my arms, and made my through the dunes until I was standing on an outcrop overlooking St. Lowell.

"Look at all the space we've got out here." I say to Kensi, who was still resting. "Room as far as the eye can see. I grew up in a small house, which was hard when you had an alcoholic for a father. It was always a battle when he came home drunk. When I became a man, I thought I'd live in some wide-open place like Arizona. But as I grew older, I realized that I belonged in the city, surrounded by the buildings and the bustle of the people. A place like this is too spacious for my taste. So long as I got the right partner, that's where I'll make my home. I won't care who my neighbors are, whether they're Martian or robots. A place we can claim for our own."

Kensi opens her eyes, and sit up in my arms, wrapping her arms around my neck. "Do you supposed there is such a place?" Kensi asks, and then sighs.

"If we can't find it, then, by God, we'll create a place just for the two of us." I say.

I can hear it in her voice, Kensi is crying. "Do you think there's room for three?" she asks.

I chuckle slightly at the implications of her question. "You're kidding. Well, when that happens, I guess I'll just have to think of something." I say, and then make my way slowly into St. Lowell carrying my lover, and the mother of my child.

 _A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long to post, I miscalculated how long it was going to take to write it. I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it, but I think this will be the last story I write where it's based off a movie. It took a lot longer to write than I was expecting, and I want to work on stories that are more my idea than something I saw in a movie or show. Now I might take a general idea from a movie or show, but I won't be writing another story based solely off a movie._


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